Republicans are seizing on President Biden’s disastrous debate performance last week by linking their Democratic counterparts to the fallout.
Over the weekend, Senate Republicans released a video of Democratic Senate incumbents and candidates running in competitive races, saying before the debate that they were confident in Biden’s mental agility. His comments were juxtaposed with images of Biden stumbling at the debate itself.
At the House level, the Republican Party’s campaign arm released an ad less than 24 hours after the debate, featuring House Democrats praising Biden and his acuity ahead of the debate. And later in the vote, the Republican State Leadership Committee released a list of questions to ask state Democratic candidates about Biden’s debate performance.
Republicans say the disarray among Democrats is a political gift for the GOP, about two weeks before its nominating convention, as the party gradually coalesces around Trump.
“You’re going to follow in Donald Trump’s footsteps and his messages to your advantage because chances are, at the end of the day, your race is being drowned out by what’s happening in the race for the White House,” said Ford O’Connell, a national representative Republican strategist. “On the off chance that you can get your message across without tying your opponent to Biden, it’s going to be hard to give it much oxygen given everything that’s going on.”
Post-debate polls show that voters are worried about Biden’s mental strength and his ability to serve as president. A Harvard CAPS-Harris poll conducted June 28-30 found that 66% of respondents said they “have doubts” about Biden’s “physical fitness,” up from 54% in May. The poll also found that just 34 percent said he is “mentally fit” and 74 percent said Biden is “showing that he is too old” to be president.
Republicans say they are seizing on the concerns, hoping they will become a key issue for voters at the polls.
“Before it was crime, the border, the economy,” said a House Republican strategist. “Now it’s crime, borders, economics and fitness for office.”
Republicans say they plan to paint their Democratic counterparts up and down the polls as ignoring warning signs about Biden’s age before the debate and accusing them of trying to mask concerns about the president’s age.
“The only explanation now is that either they were lying or they don’t talk to the president as much as they say they do,” said another GOP strategist. “It’s a hard way out.”
The strategist specifically pointed to Sens. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) and Bob Casey (D-Penn.), both facing competitive re-election bids. In the NRSC compilation video, Tester says Biden is “100 percent on this” and Casey says there is “no doubt” Biden is prepared to do the job “today” and “would be if he were reelected.”
The video also targets Senators Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), along with representatives. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), Colin Alred (D-Texas) and Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), all running for Senate seats in their respective states.
Still, several vulnerable Senate Democrats have rallied around Biden. Meanwhile, Senate Democrats’ campaign arm is brushing aside concerns that this could hurt them in the polls, pointing to the strength of their own candidates and what they say are weak Republican candidates.
“As we have always said, Senate campaigns are battles between candidates and the Republicans have a deeply flawed roster of recruits – we will win because we have the best candidates,” said David Bergstein, communications director for the Democratic Party. Senator Campaign Committee.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee echoed the same sentiment in a separate statement to The Hill.
“Legislative races have always been about the strength of our candidates, combined with the fact that Democrats deliver results when they are in charge, while extremist Republicans sow chaos,” said Viet Shelton, a spokesperson for the DCCC. “That’s why recent polls show Democrats are outpacing their Republican opponents in the battlefield. That didn’t change after the debate.”
While Republicans throw cold water on the idea of split voting, Democrats point to polls that show some Senate Democrats running ahead of Biden in their own states.
The Senate races presented a unique scenario for Democrats and Republicans in November, with many Democratic Senate candidates voting ahead of Biden. According to the latest polling average from The Hill and Decision Desk HQ, Democratic Senate candidates and incumbents are outperforming Biden in Arizona, Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
Democrats also point out that Trump presents his own problems for candidates who don’t vote, pointing specifically to his guilty verdict in the New York City silence case.
“If I’m in the Republican Party, I wouldn’t take my shirt off yet to celebrate victory when they have a convicted felon who is a political liability to their party,” said Antjuan Seawright, a Democratic strategist.
Additionally, Democrats point to the way post-debate polls so far show the horse race between Biden and Trump has not changed and question the impact Biden’s own debate performance could have on Democratic voters.
The same Harvard CAPS-Harris poll showed Trump’s lead over Biden virtually unchanged from last month.
“We haven’t seen polls that indicate this has moved anyone toward the Republicans,” said a Democratic operative. “The biggest issues we face today, how to preserve our democracy, how to preserve a woman’s right to choose, these are the issues that matter. These are some of the driving questions on which other campaigns will be run.”
“The Democrats won in 2022, we won in 2023, we won every special election. There’s a reason for that,” the agent continued. “Whether or not our president is on the ballot, Democrats are winning.”
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
