President Joe Biden may not be participating in 2024 election debates or, at least, his re-election campaign is making no commitments.
At the site of Wednesday’s Republican presidential primary debate, Biden’s top deputy campaign manager gave reporters a non-answer when asked about Biden’s plans to debate following the release of the 2024 schedule by the Commission on Presidential Debates.
“At the end of the day, we’re focused on building a campaign. We’ll have those conversations,” Quentin Fulks responded to reporters at a Tuscaloosa, Alabama press conference flanked by former Democratic Alabama Sen. Doug Jones and Alabama state Rep. Barbara Drummond, and standing in front of a “Trump’s America” image.
Junior Biden campaign spokesman Quentin Fulks repeatedly declines to say if Biden will participate in a general election debate pic.twitter.com/0vpAB1D3eC
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) December 6, 2023
“But right now,” Fulks said, “our focus is on making sure we continue to build out a campaign and infrastructure that’s going to be able to be competitive in 2024.”
When one reporter noted that his response sounded like a “no,” Fulks still did not commit Biden to any of the election debates.
“No, I said that the campaign is going to take a look at the schedule, we’re going to have this conversation,” he said at the presser held on the site of the fourth Republican debate on the University of Alabama campus.
“But as of right now, our focus remains on building a campaign and infrastructure while the Republicans remain in a divisive primary, where their frontrunner is not attending debates, our campaign is focusing on what we need to do to win an election next year,’ Fulks added, referring to how former President Donald Trump has opted out of all four GOP primary debates.
The bipartisan group for planning the presidential debates announced last month that the 2024 debate dates will be September 16, October 1 and October 9, to take place at Texas State University in San Marcos, Virginia State University in Petersburg, Virginia and the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, respectively.
Though Trump has not attended any of the GOP debates, polling shows him clearly in the lead by double digits. Many see it as an inevitability that there will be a 2020 repeat with the former president facing off against Biden.
Fulks discussed the so-called “strategy” for the Biden campaign with NPR’s “All Things Considered” host Ari Shapiro on Wednesday.
“We have to rebuild the base and continue to do exactly what we did to turn out 81 million voters to vote for the president in 2020,” he said, going on to drum up continued fear-mongering about a Trump presidency.”Our campaign can paint the contrast that Donald Trump would be a dictator if he was to regain power, that he would stand for the NRA, continue to brag about whipping away a woman’s right to choose.”
Biden campaign spokesman Quentin Fulks on the economy: “It’s really important to remind the American people where they were four years ago before Joe Biden took office!”
(Just 14% of voters say they’re better off under Biden) pic.twitter.com/kqnY4a2zhJ
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) December 6, 2023
“But the question is, for people who are dissatisfied with the Biden track record over the last few years, what is your message to them today?” Shapiro asked.
“That the president is going to continue to double down and earn their support and continue to do everything he can to make life easier and more affordable for them. And that comes in stark contrast with the Republican Party and what they’re putting forward, whether that’s Donald Trump or not,” Fulks claimed.
During Wednesday’s press conference, Fulks insisted Biden is campaigning, even if it’s “under the guise of an official event.”
Junior Biden campaign spokesman Quentin Fulks comes right out and says Biden will be campaigning “under the guise of an official event” pic.twitter.com/6JRYeoefhA
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) December 6, 2023
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Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida. Powers also contributes to BizPac Review.
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