Biden team tries to make 2024 contest about anyone but president

President Joe Biden’s team is taking on a strategic approach that pivots the spotlight onto former President Donald Trump’s embattled record rather than solely focusing on the leading Democrat going into the 2024 campaign season.

So far, Biden’s biggest competition in his own party is tackling low approval ratings and dissatisfied voters among key demographics. But Trump is leading Biden in as many as seven swing states and taking away support among young voters, a group previously dedicated to the Democratic president, recent polling shows.

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Trump is heading into the election year with a number of high-stakes criminal and civil charges but remains the favorite of the GOP. While Trump’s legal woes have yet to deter members of his own party, Biden aides are trying to use his spotty record and criminal allegations to show voters what another four years under a Trump presidency would look like.

“You have this moment in the first quarter where he is continuing to go full MAGA extremist now in order to shore up support in his own base,” a senior Biden campaign aide told CNN while talking about internal strategy in a report published Tuesday. “While he may be successful in that effort, if we do our job, we’ll point out that everything he’s saying is extreme and unpopular.”

Trump’s slate of charges includes four criminal indictments, and the Republican front-runner is fighting a civil fraud lawsuit in New York. The future of these trials remains uncertain, and Trump could still run for and hold office if convicted — barring any legal contests and state ballot requirements. But Biden’s team plans to focus on what a second term would mean for voters rather than the outcome of Trump’s cases.

“(Trump) does take up a lot of oxygen right now. But most of that oxygen right now is about the stakes for him – what may or may not happen to Donald Trump, and very little about how that is going to impact the American people,” the senior campaign aide told CNN. “We have to make sure it’s about the harm he’s going to inflict on the American people.”

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As of now, polling indicates Trump is extremely likely to win the GOP nomination. Despite his monumental lead, GOP presidential hopefuls are still holding on to hope that one of them could emerge as the new face of the party. Biden’s team said if another Republican nominee emerges, it will hammer the connection to one of those candidates and a “dangerous worldview” held by Trump and his party.

“There’s zero distance between these folks on the insane and dangerous worldview for which they’re advocating,” the senior campaign aide said. “Our ability to develop a contrast does not change based on who has the nomination at this point.”