President Joe Biden kicks off a US Tour this week, in an attempt to improve his likability and boost Democratic Party candidates by selling voters on recent policy “wins”. On Saturday, I reported that Nevada’s Democrats were avoiding unfavorable Biden on the campaign trail. The Biden-aversion has since spread to Arizona. During Sunday’s appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union”, host Jake Tapper asks Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) if he would like Biden to campaign for him in Arizona. Kelly responds,
“Hey, I will welcome anybody to come to Arizona, travel around the state at any time — as long as I’m here, if I’m not up in Washington in session — and talk about what Arizona needs,”
Either not everyone can read for nuance, or we are to be fully committed to selective understandings because The Hill wrote that Kelly “welcomes Biden on campaign”. No, he didn’t. He said he would welcome anybody… after responding to the question with the exclamation of Hey. Kelly’s response was a dodge and an attempt at being polite when offered something he was disinterested in.
By Sen Kelly being vulnerable, I guess they mean an incumbent leading by 8 points but let’s not get picky. The headline is doing overtime by pretending frail Dems are waiting for Biden, the life-blood of the party, to waltz in and invigorate their campaigns. But, that kind of story-telling is just untrue, desperate, and hard to watch. Not every outlet is buttering up Biden’s surrogate desirability, as my colleague Joe Cunningham points out. The Washington Post isn’t letting “democracy die in darkness” by shining a light on Biden’s unpopularity.
The president isn’t featured in ads. He goes largely unnamed on campaign websites and Twitter accounts. And candidates in key races in battleground states are either not asking him to come — or avoiding him when he does.
Along with the snubs racking up from Nevada’s Dems, Rep. Tim Ryan’s (D-OH) absence from an early July Biden visit in Cleveland, and Georgia Gubernatorial candidate, Stacey Abrams (D) skipping an Atlanta appearance with Biden in January, some Democrats are campaigning against Biden. Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-OH) is running ads saying she is “fighting back” and that she “doesn’t work for Joe Biden”. The ad tells voters that she is, “working with Republican Rob Portman, protecting our jobs.”
Last month, Kaptur embraced Biden on the campaign trail in Ohio, touting the Inflation Reduction Act as a success. Kaptur is the longest serving woman in Congress, attempting to secure her 20th term. Kaptur votes with Joe Biden 100% of the time.
It’s clear that Kaptur has read some polls in her 20 years in office, takes notes, and panders accordingly. It’s obvious that Kelly was being professional and courteous in his nationally-broadcast answer about everyone, even Biden, being welcome. But for voters, it’s insulting and intolerable that we have to watch politicians become contortionists bending around the basic truth: Biden is super cringey, gaffe and confusion prone, and a massive liability for both candidates and the country alike. Dems are running away; hoping to not get splashed on in their elections. The Biden-aversion tour has only just begun and the Emperor has no clothes.