Associated Press
President Joe Biden on Sunday ticked through a list of reasons he says a second Donald Trump presidency would be a “nightmare” for the country as he urged Nevada Democrats to vote for him in the state’s Presidential Primary this week and for his party at large in November.
Biden opened a campaign swing with a fundraiser where he focused on Trump’s ample history of provocative statements — his description of Jan. 6 rioters as “hostages,” his musing about a former top military officer deserving execution, his branding of fallen soldiers as “suckers” and “losers,” his wish to be a Day 1 “dictator,” his vow to supporters that “I am your retribution,” and more.
Then it was on to a community center in a predominantly Black section of Las Vegas, where he told his crowd of several hundred that “you’re the reason we’ll make Donald Trump a loser again.”
Biden said the stakes were huge when he took on Trump in 2020 — “what made America America, I thought, was at risk” — and they are even larger now as a likely rematch looms.
He told donors at the private home in Henderson, Nevada, that if they came to Washington, he’d show them the White House dining room table where Trump, according to ex-aides, sat transfixed for hours in front of the TV as the rioters he’d fired up with his rhetoric stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
“We have to keep the White House,” he said. “We must keep the Senate” and win back the House.
Accomplish that, he said, and “we can say we saved American democracy.”
He was equally blunt in talking up his record at his subsequent rally where he implored voters to “imagine the nightmare of Donald Trump.”
Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung responded in kind, saying Biden “has been a nightmare for this country in just three short years in the White House, and no amount of gaslighting will make Americans forget about all the misery and destruction he has brought.”
In Tuesday’s Nevada Democratic Presidential Primary, Biden faces only token opposition from author Marianne Williamson and a few relatively unknown challengers. He won Nevada in November 2020 by fewer than 3 percentage points. But he came to Nevada to rouse voters for the fall campaign as well.
The state known largely for its casino and hospitality industries is synonymous with split-ticket, hard-to-predict results. It has a transient, working-class population and large Latino, Filipino and Chinese American and Black communities. Nevada has a stark rural-urban divide, with more than 88% of active registered voters — and much of its political power — in the two most populous counties, which include the Las Vegas and Reno metro areas.
In 2022, Democrats successfully defended their Senate seat and lost the Governor’s Office. The six constitutional officers elected statewide are split evenly among Democrats and Republicans.
The narrow victory of U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto helped Democrats party keep control of the Senate for the remainder of Biden’s current term.
Working in Biden’s favor this year is the vast Democratic operation built by the late U.S. Sen. Harry Reid. The “Reid Machine” has for years trained operatives and retained organizers and is partially why, despite Nevada’s status as a purple state, Democrats have won every Presidential Election here since 2008.
But early signs show Biden could have more ground to make up than in past races. Voters are largely dissatisfied with the likely Biden-Trump rematch. A New York Times/Siena poll from November put Biden’s approval rating at 36% in Nevada.
“I know from my re-election, the issues that matter to Nevadans are still those kitchen table issues,” Cortez Masto said in an interview.
Biden has built his re-election campaign around the theme that Trump presents a dire threat to U.S. democracy and its founding values. The President also has championed the defense of abortion rights, recently holding his first big campaign rally, in Virginia, where the issue energized Democrats who won control of the state’s House of Delegates.
Biden also promotes his handling of the economy, arguing that his policies have created millions of jobs, combated climate change and improved American competitiveness overseas. But polls suggest many voters aren’t giving his administration credit.
The Democratic National Committee recently announced a six-figure ad buy in Nevada and South Carolina, where Biden won the leadoff Primary Saturday. The ads are meant to boost enthusiasm among Black, Asian American and Latino voters statewide, including radio, television and digital ads in Spanish, Chinese and Tagalog, and a billboard in Las Vegas’ Chinatown.
As early voting began a week ago in Nevada, Trump asserted without evidence during a campaign rally in Las Vegas that he was the victim of the Biden administration’s weaponizing law enforcement against him. Trump has been indicted four times and faces 91 felonies.
Dan Lee, an associate professor of political science at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, said that for Biden, “the map says he has to hold on to Nevada.”
The Republican Presidential Primary is also Tuesday but the state GOP is holding caucuses on Thursday to allocate delegates. Trump is competing in the caucuses; rival Nikki Haley opted to stay on the nonbinding Primary ballot.
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Republished with permission of The Associated Press.
16 comments
PeterH
February 5, 2024 at 10:29 am
If Americans fail to register to vote or decide on our 2024 November Election Day to vote for a third party candidate….. they are effectively voting for Donald Trump and his totalitarian regime!
ELECTIONS HAVE CONSEQUENCES
Father David Patterson
February 5, 2024 at 10:42 am
Our Lord in Heaven,
Donaldum Trump terreni sui corporis sublevare, eumque in ignem cum Satana conicere, in inferno pater est.
In Jesus name, Amen 🙏
My Take
February 5, 2024 at 12:55 pm
To the Lake of Fire with this fascist liar.
To the searing-sulfur pools with his MAGA fools.
Red-hot pitchfork tines into their fat behinds.
Dont Say FLA
February 5, 2024 at 11:43 am
This man can’t even deal with Taylor Swift after he picked a fight with her and, I believe, she isn’t even aware of his big fight, but he still manages to lose.
His fight is all in his head, just like everything else should be just in his head as delusions of grandeur. The guy is complete schlub and such a loser.
The GOP should be deeply embarrassed of itself, of what it’s become. It’s self-parody at this point.
Tom
February 5, 2024 at 1:12 pm
I don’t think Ann Coulter is a huge fan anymore based on her comments yesterday – they are definitely eating their own these days.
Dont Say FLA
February 5, 2024 at 4:53 pm
Ann Coulter: “Best Thing Trump Could Do for America Is ‘Die’”
I agree with Ann Coulter? What is the heck is the world coming to?
Although, I say a murder-suicide pact with Rhonda would be ever better than Trump’s demise alone, so yay, I don’t exactly agree with Ann Coulter. PHEW
na na na na hey hey bye bye
February 6, 2024 at 10:33 am
Still would hit that
Impeach Biden
February 6, 2024 at 6:00 am
Two dead leaders. Genocide Joe says he met with Francois Mitterrand, unfortunately he has been dead for nearly thirty years. Biden might still be with us physically but he is mentally dead.
na na na na hey hey bye bye
February 6, 2024 at 10:32 am
And you’re impotent; run for office or stop whining.
My Take
February 6, 2024 at 9:31 am
Demented Donald and his high supporters are actively planning their American Hell. He won’t merely drift into it.
Purge the civil service. Install whole legions of replacement stooges.
Turn the military against the citizenry.
Abandon our allies, except Israel.
Rule by decree (executive order).
na na na na hey hey bye bye
February 6, 2024 at 10:31 am
His replacement stooges won’t leave the cafeteria or their keyboards.
J6 was a referendum on Christian impotency..
na na na na hey hey bye bye
February 6, 2024 at 10:30 am
Former president Donald Trump — and indeed any other former president — may be prosecuted for alleged crimes they committed while in office, a federal appeals court panel ruled Friday.
The unanimous 57-page decision from a three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals is a major win for special counsel Jack Smith — but is likely to trigger another appeal from Trump, perhaps to the Supreme Court.
Slow Biden
February 6, 2024 at 10:08 pm
Joe follows up with his remarks about his meeting with Mitterrand, who has been dead for nearly thirty years with another bumbling, stumbling, can’t remember Hamas talk today. He is worse off than I thought. He is deteriorating rapidly. No wonder the press, his handlers keep him in the basement.
Joe Is Done
February 7, 2024 at 9:47 am
Joe can you tell us who is the terrorist group in Gaza that attacked Israel, killed and took hostages as well? Mr. President? “Uh, um, eh, ah, it will come to me. Uh, um, eh.”
Dont Say FLA
February 7, 2024 at 3:26 pm
That was just a normal everyday tour of Israel. If the media weren’t filling your head with nonsense, you’d clearly see that if you watch the footage with the faces blurred and the volume turned down.
marteen
February 10, 2024 at 2:28 pm
The nightmare belongs to dementia Joe and his merry democrats. Loss of energy independence, China buying our farm land, supply chain. Issues, out of control inflation, air safety issues, invasion at our border while caring more about ukraines
Border, middle east on fire, etc, etc,. We cannot survive another 4 years of biden.
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