CNBC: “Users are reporting that the former vice president’s official 2020 campaign page is nowhere to be found on the first page of results for the search term ‘Joe Biden.'”
“Even worse for the Democratic front-runner: A realistic-looking parody site featuring images of Biden touching women and children appears to be doing quite well on Google and other major search engines, particularly for the search ‘Joe Biden website.'”
Playbook: “So far, Biden isn’t taking questions from journalists during media gaggles on his campaign stops… Nor is he fielding questions from members of the audience at his events, though he is working the rope lines and talking to voters fairly often. And Biden did take a few questions from select pool reporters at a carefully staged event.”
“Why the caution? Biden has had a great week since his announcement. He’s tops in the polls. He’s leading in endorsements. And Trump is rage-tweeting him, making Biden look like the Democrat who most worries the president. No reason to mess that up for the once-gaffe-prone former VP if he winds up in a media scrum.”
“As the 2020 Democratic presidential field began to form earlier this year, Trump campaign officials received a directive from the president’s son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner: Don’t meddle in primary politics,” Politico reports.
“Targeting specific Democratic presidential hopefuls was at best a waste of time—and could even be counterproductive, Kushner warned.”
“One school of thought holds that an early front-runner like Biden … must be attacked early and often. Another argues that engaging Biden gives the Democrat exactly what he wants in a 20-candidate primary field: the image that he is already waging a head-to-head battle with a rattled incumbent.”
Reuters: “Biden’s rapid emergence as front-runner in the race for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination has caught the attention of President Donald Trump and unnerved some of his allies, who believe Biden is a potentially dangerous rival.”
“In the opening days of his 2020 campaign, former Vice President Joe Biden has gone all-in on the general election, positioning himself as the eventual Democratic nominee rather than scrapping with the 19 other wannabes,” Axios reports.
“This isn’t an accident. Biden strategists believe the former V.P. has the luxury of thinking long term rather than scrambling for liberal street credibility.”
Former President Obama lent his voice to a new Joe Biden campaign video that touts his former vice president as being “resilient, loyal, and a patriot,” CBS News reports.
“The new ad features footage of the former president delivering a speech during Biden’s Presidential Medal of Freedom ceremony at the White House back in 2017. In it, he devotes his remarks to a glowing review of Biden’s storied political career.”
The video ends with Obama saying, “The best part is he’s nowhere close to finished.”
A new CNN poll shows Joe Biden’s “announcement of a bid for the Democratic presidential nomination earned him an 11-point polling bounce, leaving him head and shoulders above the rest of the Democratic candidates.”
The survey shows Biden with 39%, up from 28% who said the same in March. That puts Biden more than 20 points ahead of his nearest competitor, Sen. Bernie Sanders — who holds 15% support in the poll — and roughly 30 points ahead of the next strongest candidate, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (8%).
First Read: “But remember: It’s never easy being the early polling frontrunner. Ask Rudy Giuliani and Hillary in 2008. Or Jeb Bush in 2016.”
Joe Biden told ABC News he takes “responsibility” for Anita Hill’s treatment when she testified before the Senate Judiciary committee during Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’s confirmation hearing.
Said Biden: “I believed her from the very beginning, but I was chairman. She did not get a fair hearing. She did not get treated well. That’s my responsibility. As the committee chairman, I take responsibility that she did not get treated well. I take responsibility for that.”
He added: “I apologized for it. I apologize again.”
President Trump slammed Joe Biden on Twitter, ahead of the former vice president’s first campaign rally.
Said Trump: “The Media (Fake News) is pushing Sleepy Joe hard. Funny, I’m only here because of Biden & Obama. They didn’t do the job and now you have Trump, who is getting it done – big time!”
New York Times: “It is not just that the former vice president, who jumped into the presidential race last week, is a native son of a state that is a 2020 must-win for Democrats.”
“The argument is that Mr. Biden’s brand of politics — appealing to a traditional coalition shredded by Donald J. Trump in 2016 — still has latent appeal in Pennsylvania and across the Midwest, and that stitching the coalition back together would restore Democrats to the White House.”
Alexander Burns: “After the very first exchange, Biden never returned to the theme of the 2020 election as a national emergency. Why not use a platform like this to hammer home the central opening argument of his campaign? And Biden stumbled over the invasion-of-space and Anita Hill questions, both of which were among the most foreseeable early questions of his campaign. This was about as unchallenging an interview as Biden could expect and he could have prepared and delivered clear, definitive answers that didn’t involve litigating Senate procedure. And that’s just not what he did.”
“Having said that, the appearance also illustrated the core reasons why Biden is an appealing candidate to many people — his bear hug of the Obama administration’s record on policy and ethics, for one, and his richly emotional comments about his son, Beau.”
An email from Joe Biden’s presidential campaign says the former vice president raised $6.3 million from 96,926 people in its first 24 hours.
Former Vice President Joe Biden said he would not commit to serving only one term if he is elected president, The Hill reports.
When asked how old is too old to be president, President Trump told CBS News: “Well, I just feel like a young man. I’m so young. I can’t believe it. I’m the youngest person. I am a young, vibrant man.”
Then Trump suggested Joe Biden, who is 76 years old, isn’t up to it: “I look at Joe, I don’t know about him. I don’t know.”
When asked how he would beat Biden in a possible 2020 match up, Trump predicted: “I think we beat him easily.”
Susan Glasser: “Given the almost numbing predictability of the President and the ever-increasing difficulty his critics have mustering outrage toward him at this point, it came as a jolt to see Joe Biden go directly at Trump in a video announcing his Presidential campaign, on Thursday. The seventy-six-year-old former Vice-President unabashedly took the Trump-bashing course that most of the eighteen other declared Democratic candidates for 2020 have eschewed.”
“The new conventional wisdom in American politics holds that Biden is making a mistake. After all, opinions are so fixed about Trump that there is little point in talking about him to voters who have already made their minds up about the President.”
“We’ve got another five hundred and fifty-six days to go before we learn whether Biden is right. It’s a big bet.”
Former Vice President Joe Biden called Anita Hill earlier this month to express his regret over “what she endured” testifying against Justice Clarence Thomas at the 1991 Supreme Court hearings that put a spotlight on sexual harassment of women, the New York Times reports.
“But Ms. Hill, in an interview Wednesday, said she left the conversation feeling deeply unsatisfied and declined to characterize his words to her as an apology. She said she is not convinced that Mr. Biden truly accepts the harm he caused her and other women who suffered sexual harassment and gender violence.”
Said Hill: “I cannot be satisfied by simply saying I’m sorry for what happened to you. I will be satisfied when I know there is real change and real accountability and real purpose.”
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D), “who has raised millions of dollars during his campaigns over the years, has indicated to associates in recent days that he will be opening his vast and powerful fundraising network exclusively to Joe Biden,” CNBC reports.
“Cuomo’s support could be a game-changer for Biden. While the former vice president has consistently led Democratic primary polls, he has been aggressively courting donors in a bid to catch up to an already crowded primary field that has a head start in the fundraising game. New York State Board of Elections data show Cuomo has raked in $100 million in campaign contributions since he first ran for governor in 2010. At least 80 percent of his backers have given him $10,000 or more.”
Joe Biden will give his first interview as a 2020 presidential candidate on The View Friday morning.
President Trump noted Joe Biden entry into the 2020 presidential race: “Welcome to the race Sleepy Joe. I only hope you have the intelligence, long in doubt, to wage a successful primary campaign. It will be nasty – you will be dealing with people who truly have some very sick & demented ideas.”
He added: “But if you make it, I will see you at the Starting Gate!”
Taegan Goddard
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire -- which for more than two decades has been one of the nation's most influential political news sites.
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