President Joe Biden and ex-President Donald Trump are battling as though their general election showdown is eight days rather than eight months away. An intense weekend of campaigning, with the rivals both visiting the critical swing state of Georgia, laid out the stakes of their clash – as well as their strategies and vulnerabilities.
Biden this week will try to build on his successful State of the Union address and flesh out his message that while he cares about Americans – their jobs and their health care – and the nation’s global leadership, Trump is obsessed with himself. Biden will lay out policy ideas in his annual budget expected Monday, which won’t go anywhere in the GOP-controlled House but will underscore his economic pitch to voters and preview his possible second-term agenda.
The extraordinary entanglement of the 2024 election and Trump’s legal woes will also be back in focus with a hearing Thursday in the federal classified documents case in Florida. Judge Aileen Cannon will hear arguments from Trump’s attorneys and special counsel Jack Smith’s team that could help decide whether the case goes to trial before the election.
Biden’s own controversy over classified documents will be back in the spotlight on Tuesday when House Republicans grill special counsel Robert Hur, who cleared Biden of criminal liability but questioned his memory for key details – playing into a core GOP election theme.
Biden wants to lock in the image he projected at his State of the Union address – that of a feisty statesman in command of his faculties, his campaign and his country.
The speech helped temper months of headlines about a presidency in decline. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, for instance, told ABC News on Sunday, “Anybody who watched that address saw not just in the…
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