Republican debate: Biden reelection campaign slams GOP ‘extremism’

SIMI VALLEY, California — President Joe Biden‘s reelection campaign preemptively slammed the seven Republican presidential candidates who will appear onstage at the second primary debate of the 2024 cycle.

In an interview with the Washington Examiner on Wednesday, Biden’s campaign spokesman pushed back against what he called Republican “extremism.”

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“I think we’re ready to aggressively respond to anything that comes out of this debate. I think what we’re also going to be doing is highlighting Republican’s record and the extremism we’re sure to see tonight,” Ammar Moussa said. “Whether it’s slashing Social Security and Medicare, whether it’s passing a national abortion ban, whether it’s massive tax cuts for the wealthy. And so we will make sure that we’re arming people with the facts about what is happening tonight and what the Republicans really stand.”

Moussa also took aim at former President Donald Trump, who will not appear at the debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute, instead opting to give a prime-time speech to striking United Auto Workers in Michigan. Trump’s speech comes one day after Biden joined UAW members on the picket line in Michigan, an unprecedented show of display from a sitting U.S. president.

“What we’re gonna see in tonight’s speech from President Trump is a lot more lies about this anti-union, anti-worker record. Let’s remember that Donald Trump is the one that consistently attacked unions when he was president,” Moussa said. “Under Trump, factories shuttered their doors, jobs were shipped overseas after he promised that those factories wouldn’t be shut. So I think there is no doubt that Donald Trump is going to lie about his record.”

The Biden campaign launched a new Michigan-focused ad on Wednesday lambasting Trump’s union history, part of a 16-week, $25 million advertising campaign.

Moussa declined to confirm whether Biden will participate in a general election debate with the eventual Republican nominee. “We haven’t had any conversations about that. It is September. We’re still like 13 months out,” he said.

The campaign is also deploying surrogates to counter the GOP debate, including Democratic National Committee Chairman Jaime Harrison, Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA), and campaign manager Julie Chevez Rodriguez.

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In a call with reporters Monday, Harrison criticized the entire Republican primary field for following in the legacy of Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement while subtly attacking Trump’s UAW speech. “The 2024 MAGA Republican field is the most extreme, the most out of touch slate of candidates in history,” Harrison said. “You know, they talk about being for working Americans, but they abandon union workers to shill for corporations and their ultra-rich friends.”

Ahead of the debate, the DNC is flying a plane banner over the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, where the debate is taking place, and a mobile billboard attacking Republicans.