Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s campaign is calling recent attacks by President Trump a “desperate attempt” to compete against the former vice president.
“Despite the breathless coverage each new Trump attack gets, this endless rotation of the same debunked smears isn’t the product of strategic genius, it’s a sign of myopia and desperation as each successive attempt backfires, re-elevating a massive Trump liability while leaving his campaign scrambling to find something new,” deputy campaign manager Kate Bedingfield said in a memo to campaign surrogates on Sunday, according to a copy obtained by The Hill.
The campaign listed several different “false attacks” from Trump and his allies that have “backfired” on the president. The memo references the term “Beijing Biden,” an attack that was used in ads launched by the America First Action PAC in May, as well as the terms “Corrupt Joe” and “Sleepy Joe,” which the president has used to label his Democratic opponent in tweets.
Bedingfield’s memo also accused Trump of tying Biden to the “radical left” and “trying to paint Biden as out of the mainstream.” During an Independence Day address, Trump railed against the “radical left” and news media, but he did not name Biden specifically.
Bedingfield said that Trump’s attacks, however, are only harming “himself and the down-ballot Republicans who’ve handcuffed themselves to him.”
“Simply put, the American people just aren’t buying his fabrications about the Vice President,” she added.
A spokesperson for Trump’s reelection campaign was not immediately available for comment.
Recent polls have shown Trump trailing Biden nationally as well as in several key swing states. Trump similarly trailed Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton in polls months before the 2016 election he ultimately won.