Biden pokes GOP’s ‘basement’ attack with drive-in rally photo

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden on Saturday poked fun at Republicans mocking his lack of campaign rallies due to the coronavirus while highlighting his efforts to safely turn out supporters.

Biden shared an image of supporters at one of his “drive-in” rallies, aimed at stemming the spread of the virus with social distancing measures.

“Who let all these people into my basement?” the former vice president quipped on Twitter.

Who let all these people into my basement? pic.twitter.com/E17SPqmXib

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) October 31, 2020

Biden took his campaign almost entirely online at the onset of the pandemic — a fact President Trump and his Republican allies later seized on to antagonize the 77-year-old candidate.

In August, Trump’s reelection campaign released an ad that falsely depicted Biden as “hiding” alone in his basement, using an image edited to remove several other people.

The edited picture of Biden sitting on the floor of a house appeared about five seconds into the video as a narrator claimed Biden was “hiding … in his basement.”

“Alone. Hiding. Diminished,” the campaign wrote.

The Trump campaign also put up billboards around Wisconsin, the state that officially hosted the largely digital Democratic National Convention, asking, “Where’s Joe?” It also deployed Vice President Pence to the state in hope of narrowing Biden’s lead there.

Biden largely stayed off the campaign trail earlier this year to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. He conducted a number of media interviews and virtual events remotely from his home in Delaware then, though he did make some in-person appearances, such as at a wreath-laying ceremony at a veteran’s memorial near his home in May.

The former vice president stepped up his travel heading into Labor Day and has held a series of in-person campaign events across the country in the final months of the election.

Earlier this week, Biden held a drive-in rally in Atlanta and is scheduled to campaign with former President Obama at two stops in Michigan on Saturday.