Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden again called a “lid” on campaign events and media availability on Sunday, just nine days before he squares off with President Donald Trump in the general election. Since September 1, Biden has not been available to the press or in-person campaign events for roughly 35 percent of the days leading up to the election.
Sunday’s “lid” comes after a week where Biden stayed at home from Sunday, October 18 until the last presidential debate on Thursday, October 22.
Ironically, at 9:00 a.m. on Sunday, Biden tweeted, “9 more days until the election. Let’s go!” Then, at 11:37 a.m., the campaign called a lid on the day’s events, meaning that Biden would not be available to the press or make any in-person campaign appearances for the day.
Biden did make an online appearance on Sunday at a get-out-the-vote online concert, where he proceeded to forget whom he was running against, calling Donald Trump “George” — apparently a reference to one of the previous Bush presidents — until his wife got him back on track, saying “Trump” under her breath several times.
Meanwhile, his opponent, Donald Trump, is keeping up a feverish pace in the last full week before the election. On Sunday, Trump made campaign stops in New Hampshire and neighboring Maine before heading back to the White House to host a Halloween event. Trump’s schedule for the coming days is also full, with trips planned to Pennsylvania on Monday; Michigan, Wisconsin, and Nebraska on Tuesday; and Arizona on Wednesday. All of this just three weeks removed from a hospital stay where the president was being treated for the COVID-19 virus.
Biden, on the other hand, has a far less ambitious schedule with one event scheduled in Georgia on Tuesday. The Biden campaign is boasting of several online events over the next several days, none of which Biden will need to leave his home for. Besides the debate in past week, Biden was in Durham, North Carolina, on October 18 and spent a day in Pennsylvania on Saturday.
Biden’s relaxed schedule was not lost on the president, who commented: “This guy has more lids, I don’t know, there’s something going on; somebody said it’s strategy, it’s not, because really strategy would be coming out,” Trump told a New Hampshire crowd.
“Do you think Sleepy Joe would be doing these things? I don’t think so,” Trump said. “He’ll go back to bed. Hillary [Clinton] used to spend a lot of time in bed, too. But she had more energy than him. She did.”
Trump further suggested that the reasons for Biden’s ongoing absence from the campaign trail might have to do with the Hunter Biden e-mail scandal that the Biden campaign and most of the mainstream media still refuse to acknowledge. “I would say the primary reason he put the lid on again is because he can’t answer the questions,” Trump stated. “No, he can’t answer these questions.”
Democrats are attempting to spin Biden’s campaign absences as some sort of role reversal between he and Trump, with the president playing the role of the challenger and the former vice-president playing the role of the incumbent.
“It’s a jarring flip of the script for an incumbent president and his challenger eight days before election day,” read a Politico article by David Siders and Christopher Cadelago. “Trump, in the last gasp of his campaign, is barreling across the country, hoping large rallies and bets placed across the board will pay off for his underdog campaign. Biden is doing fewer and smaller events — and even peering past the election toward governing.”
“To say it’s a role reversal is an understatement,” said Kelly Dietrich, the founder of the National Democratic Training Committee.
Democrats are also claiming that Biden’s dependence on virtual events instead of campaign appearances is at least in part due to the recent surge in COVID-19 cases around the country. While they claim that President Trump is holding “super spreader” campaign events, Biden is taking the safer approach, by staying secluded — away from the germs as well as reporters’ questions.
But there’s a difference between laying low and playing dead. Either Biden thinks he has the race wrapped up — and has thought that since the beginning of September — or there’s real trouble with his health and/or stamina. Biden’s absence from the campaign trail does not exhibit confidence; it exhibits either weakness or a lack of desire; or both.
