Biden campaign narrows focus squarely to Trump after New Hampshire

President Biden’s reelection campaign sharply shifted its focus to the general election the morning after the New Hampshire primary, outlining that its attention is all on the fight to keep former President Trump out of the White House.

Biden and Trump both won New Hampshire in their respective races, with Biden winning a write-in campaign in the Granite State and Trump beating out former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (R).

“Trump spent his evening airing personal grievances against Nikki Haley, while President Biden and Vice President Harris highlighted the stakes of 2024 for Americans’ rights and freedoms. So it’s with that clear contrast on full display that we enter the general election phase of this campaign,” Biden’s campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez told reporters Wednesday.

“While Joe Biden and Kamala Harris head into the general election with a winning message, the support of a united party and strong grassroots enthusiasm, Republicans are uniting behind an extreme and losing front-runner,” she said.

Biden’s messaging in recent speeches had already shifted to focus on Trump, and he has attacked his predecessor over the Jan. 6, 2021, riots at the U.S. Capitol, abortion access and the economy, among other issues.

But the campaign made clear Wednesday that the shift is official, with Trump all but solidifying his position as the GOP front-runner.

“This campaign is now laser-focused on presenting that direct choice to the American people because it’s real at this point in time,” Biden’s campaign communications director Michael Tyler said.

“The campaign has already begun stepping up in battleground states across the country … You can of course expect more to come in that regard, because it’s all hands on deck now. We’re full steam ahead heading into the general election,” Tyler said, adding that they will focus on presenting a “clear choice” between Biden and Trump.

Quentin Fulks, Biden’s deputy campaign manager, argued that New Hampshire’s results showed Trump doesn’t have enough support from undeclared voters and that he underperformed compared to his results in 2016.

“Trump’s party is divided, and now he’s about to face the only politician who has ever beaten him and who did so with more votes than any presidential candidate in history,” Fulks said.

Following Tuesday’s results, Biden released a statement saying that it’s “clear” Trump will be Republican nominee, setting his focus on the likely 2020 presidential rematch.

The aggregation of polls kept by Decision Desk HQ and The Hill shows Trump with a lead of 1.3 percentage points over Biden.