Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and allies see President Biden’s highly anticipated and much-scrutinized news conference as a win-win for the former president.
“It appears Biden did enough to convince his apologists that he should remain on the ballot, but he also reinforced what the American people know. Their lives are being hurt by his weakness and failure on a daily basis,” a Trump campaign official, who asked for anonymity to speak more freely, told Fox News Digital after Thursday night’s press conference.
As the president continues to push back against a rising chorus of calls from within the Democratic Party for him to step aside and end his 2024 re-election campaign following last month’s disastrous debate performance with Trump, the news conference didn’t appear to do any further damage. But it’s also doubtful it will stem the growing movement to urge Biden to drop out of the race.
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Trump’s campaign hopes Biden stays in the race. Trump’s campaign appears to believe he is the weakest candidate for the former president to face. The Trump campaign continues to argue the 81-year-old Biden isn’t physically or mentally up to the task of serving as president.
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After Biden mistakenly referred to Vice President Kamala Harris as “Vice President Trump,” Trump’s social media account quickly shared a clip of the moment, with the former president writing, “Great job, Joe!”
Trump also posted on social media some of the other stumbles and gaffes by the president at the high-stakes news conference.
Donald Trump Jr., who’s a top surrogate for this father, said on his Rumble livestream that Biden did “fine enough to be able to stay in it” but later shared a social media post that blended the faces of Trump and Harris together and said “Vice President Trump.”
Veteran Republican consultant Dave Carney told Fox News the news conference “couldn’t have been better.”
“He didn’t drool, he didn’t fall, he didn’t freeze up,” Carney, who steers a leading pro-Trump super PAC, noted.
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But Carney argued that nothing Biden said at the news conference was “reassuring” to voters or to America’s allies.
He argued that when it comes to Biden’s candidacy, things remain “unsettled,” and for Republicans, “unsettled is good.”
Longtime Republican strategist Mike Biundo told Fox News the president “did enough not to get kicked out of the race but not enough to look like a competent candidate.”
“From the Republican and the Trump side, I think it’s a 100% win-win for us,” added Biundo, who served as a top adviser on Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.
Since the June 27 debate in Atlanta, the Trump campaign and super PACs supporting the former president have refrained from using clips of the president’s stumbles in ads. They’ve mostly laid low and allowed the media spotlight to remain on Biden and the Democratic Party turmoil over his candidacy.
Asked if Trump’s campaign or allied groups should use clips of the gaffes from the news conference in ads, Biundo said, “I’ve always been a big believer when someone’s doing damage to themselves, you allow them to do the damage, and you get out of the way.
“But some of those clips are just too much gold not to use.”
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