White House defends Biden’s quiet campaign strategy after he gives ‘closing argument’ speech to DNC staffers
The president on Saturday tweeted that Biden’s planned remarks were “great,” and he was “happy to hear him.”
“He’s a good man,” Trump tweeted. “I hope he runs for President in 2024. A good man with big dreams. He is an inspiration to all!”
And on Thursday, Biden announced he’d be releasing a plan on climate change in the morning. Biden aides said those were the only changes he made to the speech he’s delivering Friday night at the Democratic National Convention.
But that wasn’t enough to satisfy those who’ve been making it clear that the former vice president won’t be running against Trump in 2020.
The #Biden2016 reaction started almost immediately. At the top of Friday’s tweet, former Vice President Walter Mondale tweeted that Biden was “not a conservative Democrat” and then went on to say that he wasn’t a “running mate” for the president.
“The VP is not a running mate. He is a candidate. The VP was selected to lead the ticket as part of a democratic ticket. He was never asked to become a running mate. Why would any democratic ticket ask for this? Why does the republican party want this?” the 77-year-old tweeted.
“How can @JoeBiden be both a VP from a democratic administration and not be a Democrat?” wrote another user. “How can the VP of a DEM party be neither?”
Another user wrote: “Do not fall into the false choice of running as democrat and then trying to be a republican. They are both completely different. The republican party has not given any clear indication that they will choose the VP on a democratic ticket. The democratic party is a party of choice.”
But Biden’s advisers say that’s unfair — and that they’ve made changes to the speech, including making the transition to climate change a part of it.
