CNN Poll: Biden Still Leads Voting Intent 0:56
(CNN) -
Joe Biden's nonaggression campaign takes a sharper lead as his run with President Donald Trump enters the home stretch and the incumbent, a week after the sweetened Republican convention, lunges again in response. to a new series of controversies made by himself.
On the eve of Labor Day weekend, Biden, in his second press conference of the week, reacted furiously to a report that Trump, in private conversations, described US soldiers killed in action as "fools."
Biden called the statements "absolutely damning" and asked the president, if the details of the story are true, to apologize to the families of US military veterans and those killed in war.
The alleged comments, as first reported in The Atlantic on Thursday, have been met with a frenzy of denials from the White House and Trump personally, who has called the report a "hoax."
But his rush to undermine history, which has not been independently verified by CNN, underscores the political danger Trump sees in the future and, at the very least, his potential to detract from his efforts to turn this election into a partisan election. and not simply a referendum in its first four years.
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Biden made the issue, which could curb support for Trump with military families and veterans, personal during an exchange with reporters in Wilmington, Delaware, on Friday, recalling the background of his late son, Beau.
"My son was an assistant to the US Attorney General and volunteered to go to Kosovo, when the war was ongoing, as a civilian, he was not a 'fool'," said Biden, stern-faced as he hammered the term. offensive.
"When my son volunteered and joined the United States Army as Attorney General (from Delaware), he went to Iraq for a year, won the Bronze Star and other accolades, he was not a 'fool.'
In the months since he won the Democratic nomination, Biden has tried to stay away from the wildfires lit by Trump, to focus his criticism of the president on the administration's mismanagement of the coronavirus pandemic.
The nation's death toll is approaching 200,000 and, according to a model from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, could more than double that number in January if the United States continues on its current path.
“(Trump) doesn't feel it, he doesn't understand, he just doesn't care.
He thinks that if the stock market goes up, then everything is fine, "said Biden, who struck a chord with the populist in this latest complaint.
If your wealthy donors and friends are okay, then all is well.
If corporations see their valuations rise, then they must be hiring. "
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At his own press conference later in the day, Trump came out and offered a rote comment on what he touted as positive economic news in an employment report released Friday, before turning to misleading messages about the pandemic and an assault. full frontal to the story of The Atlantic.
But if Trump's goal was to question the magazine's details, to suggest that he could not have denigrated the war dead because of his alleged reverence for the military, he chose a strange way of communicating it.
Recalling his derogatory comments about the late Senator John McCain, the president said he "respected" the man who served nearly six years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, before repeatedly criticizing the veterans legislation that McCain, along with Senator Bernie Sanders , created and passed during the Obama administration.
Trump also suggested that his former chief of staff, John Kelly, could have been a source for The Atlantic article, before trying to convince Americans that the former U.S. Marine Corps general had collapsed in the Crucible of Trump's luxurious West Wing office space.
"He was with me, he didn't do a good job, he had no temperament, and ultimately he was exhausted," Trump said of Kelly, whose son died in action nearly a decade ago in Afghanistan.
They ate him alive.
He couldn't handle the pressure of this job.
Contrasting styles
Friday's press conferences offered Americans another jarring contrast between Trump and Biden, culminating a week of the same.
Both men visited Kenosha, Wisconsin, which has been hit by protests and riots in response to the shooting of a police officer seven times in the back of Jacob Blake, a black man, on August 23.
But Trump used his visit almost exclusively to highlight the scenes of looting and burning buildings.
Biden, when he landed later in the week, condemned the violence and spoke out about systemic racism and racial justice issues during remarks at Grace Lutheran Church.
He also had a private conversation with members of Blake's family and spoke to the 29-year-old on the phone.
Back in his home state on Friday, Biden framed the election race - as he has for months - as less a choice between himself and Trump than a question of whether the country wants to go further into Trump's rabbit hole.
But, perhaps more than ever, he seemed determined to make a more passionate case against her.
He lashed out and lamented Trump's suggestion, on consecutive nights, to supporters in North Carolina and Pennsylvania that they try to vote twice, once by mail and then in person, to test election security measures.
It is illegal to vote twice, as a variety of legal experts, election officials and state attorneys general reminded Americans in response.
The former vice president reiterated that point, but also inquired into the psychology of the matter, calling the comments another attempt by Trump to "create so much chaos that no matter what the outcome of the election is, it is thrown into the air."
When asked at the time if he was concerned about Trump's blatant effort to dispel the doubts about voting by mail, Biden replied simply, "Yes, I am."
"The more chaos is sown here, people will not be inclined to show up," he said, channeling the wisdom of voting rights experts, who say the vague and constant talk about voter suppression, even in attempts to combat it , it may be a self-fulfilling prophecy.
"In a sense, every time I talk about it, I feel like I'm playing their game."
On Friday night, Trump tripled and told supporters in North Carolina during a "telerally" to post their ballots by mail and try to vote in person.
Entering the ring
Engaging with Trump on Trump's terms has proven over the years to be a wasted effort, for both Republicans and Democrats.
Biden and his campaign have sought to keep at least one foot out of the president's mud pit.
That decision was made to appear wiser this week, as a variety of polls showed Biden topping Trump, as he does in all big-name national polls, and ahead of Trump or running side by side with him in key states. .
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Biden's campaign manager, Jen O'Malley Dillon, told reporters in a call on Friday that she believed the race is "pretty stable under the hood" as it ticked off a number of demographics, including suburban and low-income demographics. independent, with which polls showed that Biden performed better than Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in 2016.
Mike Donilon, Biden's chief strategist, commented in the same call that the coronavirus would remain the main focus of the campaign, for the simple reason that, whether viewed as a health or an economic issue, or both, it remains a concern. for millions of Americans.
Trump's efforts to evade the pandemic, he said, will not be successful because "that's where the voters are," adding that the president's attempts to change the conversation with outlandish and headline-grabbing comments would be counterproductive.
"When there's an intense focus on President Trump and what he's saying and what he's doing," Donilon said, "I think there's a lot of evidence over the course of this race that his numbers tend to drop."
Yet for parts of the week and a few captivating hours at the end, Biden vowed to make his own mark.
Now, as the first rounds of ballots begin reaching voters less than 60 days before the election, Biden and his team appear determined to help Trump on a path they believe ends with the political demise of the president.
Donald TrumpJoe Biden