President Trump’s reelection campaign is accusing Joe Biden of intentionally avoiding the campaign trail and is demanding that the media raise pressure on the presumptive Democratic nominee to cut a more visible profile.
“This is obviously a tactic to help him avoid errors and embarrassing, lost trains of thought, while also conveniently preventing the press corps from asking him any questions in person,” Trump campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh said in a memo sent to reporters.
Biden has spent most of the past two months at his home in Delaware due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The former vice president has started some light travel over the past two weeks, with events in Houston and Philadelphia.
Biden will be in Darby, Pa., for an event on Thursday, but it will be covered live by a small group of pooled press reporters.
“These events have been either tightly controlled or covered by press in only a pool arrangement,” Murtaugh said. “At what point will Biden subject himself to the scrutiny American voters deserve when considering the next President of the United States?”
Biden has unquestionably benefited from his time out of the spotlight, with national polls showing him building up a substantial lead over Trump.
The president has been an inescapable presence in the news amid the coronavirus outbreak and protests that have swept the nation following the police killing of George Floyd.
The Trump campaign is eager to have Biden return to the spotlight, believing the race for the White House will narrow once they’ve been able to define him.
“We hope that the media joins us in calling on Joe Biden to end his self-imposed isolation and give Americans what they deserve – a thorough examination and vetting of a man who wants to be president,” Murtaugh said.
Trump will hold his first rally since the coronavirus outbreak on Saturday in Oklahoma.
The Hill has reached out to the Biden campaign for comment.