OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
The Biden campaign on Thursday ripped former President Donald Trump’s speech at the Republican National Convention and promised to go on and win the election.
“Tonight, Donald Trump rambled on for well over an hour and failed to mention Project 2025 even once,” President Joe Biden said in a statement via campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon.
“He failed to mention how he had inflicted pain and cruelty on the women of America by overturning Roe v Wade. He failed to mention his plan to take over the civil service and to pardon the January 6th insurrectionists,” the statement began.
“He sought to find problems with America, not to provide solutions. But after all, it was Donald Trump who destroyed our economy, ripped away rights, and failed middle class families. Now he pursues the presidency with an even more extreme vision for where he wants to take this country. Trump’s Project 2025 agenda is the single biggest attack on our personal freedoms and way of life ever proposed in modern American history,” the statement added.
“I am running on a different vision. I am running for an America where we defend democracy, not diminish it. Where we restore our rights and protect our freedoms, not take them away. One where we create opportunities for everyone, while making the super wealthy finally pay their fair share. That is the future I believe in and I know it is the future that millions of my fellow Americans believe in too. The stakes have never been higher. The choice has never been more clear. I am more determined than ever to defeat Donald Trump and his Project 2025 agenda in November,” it added.
On Friday morning, Biden’s re-election campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that “absolutely the president is in this race.”
“I’m not here to say that this hasn’t been a tough several weeks for the campaign,” she said. “There’s no doubt that it has been, and we’ve definitely seen some slippage in support, but it has been a small movement.”
According to Dillon, there are still several “pathways to victory” for Biden.
She also teased an endorsement for Biden “from a very significant national organization.”
Her assurance that the president is remaining in the 2024 race comes as Congressional Democratic support continues to erode. On Friday morning, a 23rd Democratic lawmaker asked the president to “pass the torch.”
New York Democrat Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez came out swinging on Thursday night, arguing that Democrats should stick with Biden in an hour-long video posted on Instagram.
The “Squad” senator noted that while polls and other statistics haven’t persuaded her that Biden can’t beat Trump in November, she stressed that anyone skeptical about Biden’s chances shouldn’t write them off.
But Ocasio-Cortez contended that Democrats don’t have enough time to organize a nationwide campaign to unseat Biden and win the White House.
“When I think about the case, in terms of supporting a Joe Biden presidency or being okay with Joe Biden continuing to be the nominee, I’m looking at a watch. I’m looking at a clock and I’m looking at a calendar. And I think that if, personally, people want to have this conversation six months ago, eight months ago, a year ago, it’s a very different landscape.”
She criticized Democrats who have provided media with anonymous statements in an attempt to discredit Biden or put pressure on him to withdraw.
“That’s bulls—t. Like, if you have an opinion, say it with your chest and say it in public,” Ocasio-Cortez said.
AOC also said there is no consensus that Vice President Kamala Harris would be the Democratic nominee if Biden steps aside. She said those pushing for Biden to withdraw “are interested in removing the whole ticket.”
WATCH:
One of the reasons I love AOC is because she’s straight up.
Tonight on IG Live, she called out Democrats anonymously undermining Biden to reporters. She called it “bullshit” and told them to “say it with your chest” and “put your name on it.” pic.twitter.com/Cj9h6asjUg
— Nate Morris (@_natemorris) July 19, 2024
