President Trump antagonized Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden on Saturday, mockingly telling the former vice president to “get out of his basement” and return to the campaign trail.
“Now that Biden’s Polls are dropping fast, he has agreed to get out of his basement and start campaignin“[sic]in ten days.” Sadly, that is a very slow reaction time for a President,” Trump tweeted. “Our beloved USA needs a much faster, smarter, and tougher response than that. Get out there today, Joe!”
Trump’s tweet comes after the Biden campaign announced Thursday that he would resume physically campaigning after Labor Day. Amid the coronavirus pandemic, the campaign has still held events, just virtually. Unlike the Republican National Convention, which was partially in-person, the Democratic National Convention was completely virtual.
Following his acceptance speech at the RNC Thursday night, Trump hit the campaign trail Friday, having a rally in New Hampshire, a state that the president hopes to flip red in November. Vice President Pence made stops in Michigan and Minnesota, both critical battleground states.
Biden said at a fundraiser that he plans to make stops in Arizona, Minnesota, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — all important swing states — when he resumes campaigning in-person.
“Here’s the deal. We plan on, without jeopardizing or violating state rules about how many people can in fact assemble,” he said Thursday. “So what we’re working on is how I get out. I’m going to be traveling throughout the country where I can do it consistent with the state rules about how many people can be assembled.”
In response to Trump’s jab, Michael Gwin, deputy rapid response director for the Biden campaign, said “[t]he only ‘very slow reaction time’ Donald Trump should be concerned about is his own,” referring to the administration’s response to the pandemic.
“To his credit though, Trump is right that America needs a ‘much faster, smarter, and tougher response’ on this pandemic than what we’ve seen from him and his administration’s historic bungling, which has left 180,000 Americans dead, our economy reeling, and our schools shuttered,” Gwin told The Hill in a statment.
“The American people are crying out for the sort of leadership Trump only knows how to tweet about, so maybe he should put down his phone and try to start doing his job finally.”
Updated 2:34 p.m.