Biden and Trump open general election battle in Georgia with dueling rallies

President Biden and former President Trump held dueling campaign events in Georgia on Saturday, effectively kicking off a lengthy general election campaign in what is expected to be a hotly contested battleground state.

The two men traded fierce barbs at events that took place less than an hour away from one another, with Biden hammering Trump as a wannabe dictator and Trump pummeling Biden over his handling of the southern border.

The simultaneous trips to Georgia came on the heels of Biden’s State of the Union, during which he drew repeated contrasts with Trump in a fiery speech that drew plaudits from Democrats, and days after Trump’s last remaining GOP primary rival dropped out and cleared his path to the nomination.

Biden touts endorsements in Atlanta

Biden rallied supporters in Atlanta, where he rattled off a series of accomplishments during his first three years in office and warned of the dangers to democracy if Trump wins in November.

“Trump and I have a very different value set, if it isn’t obvious already,” Biden told supporters. 

“Mine is based on core values that have defined America, and the rest of the world looks at us that way. Decency, honesty, fairness and equality,” he continued. “But we all know Donald Trump sees a different America. An American story of resentment, revenge and retribution. That’s not me. That’s not you.”

Biden hit Trump for boasting about overturning Roe v. Wade, for adding to the federal deficit, for signing a tax cut that slashed rates for corporations and for saying immigrants were “poisoning the blood” of the country.

“No one should ever doubt where my heart is,” Biden said.

The president touted the diversity of his Cabinet and the appointment of the first Black woman Supreme Court justice. He also boasted about efforts to lower prescription drug prices for Medicare users and highlighted efforts to forgive student loan debt.

Ahead of Saturday’s event, a trio of political groups focused on mobilizing minority voters that endorsed the president’s reelection bid and committed. The Collective PAC, Latino Victory Fund and AAPI Victory Fund announced they would spend $30 million on voter outreach and mobilization leading up to November, touting how the Biden administration had invested in minority communities.

The trip to Georgia is part of a planned campaign blitz from the Biden campaign in which the president and vice president will visit every battleground state during March. Over the next several days, Biden will campaign in New Hampshire, Michigan and Wisconsin.

Trump emphasizes immigration

For Trump, the Georgia rally was a chance to drill down on immigration and border security, which has been the former president’s signature issue dating back to his 2016 White House run.

The former president, speaking in Rome, Ga., located in Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s (R-Ga.) congressional district, reportedly met with the parents of Laken Riley, a University of Georgia student who was killed last month. 

The alleged killer is a Venezuelan migrant who entered the U.S. illegally in 2022. Some supporters on Saturday held signs with Riley’s picture that said: “Say Her Name.”

Trump spoke at length about the border and about Riley, and he slammed Biden for mispronouncing her name when he spoke about her death during Thursday’s State of the Union.

“Joe Biden has no remorse, no regret, no empathy, no compassion, and worst of all, he has no intention of stopping the deadly invasion that stole precious Laken’s beautiful American life,” Trump said.

“What Joe Biden has done on our border is a crime against humanity, and the people of this nation, for which he will never be forgiven,” he added.

Trump has made border security and immigration central to his campaign stops in recent weeks as polling shows it climbing the list of voter concerns. He has used Riley’s killing to raise concerns about “migrant crime,” and he claimed Biden Saturday “maliciously eviscerated the borders of the United States and set loose thousands of dangerous criminals into our country.”

Biden has blamed Trump for torpedoing a bipartisan Senate border security bill that would have provided additional resources at the border and restricted certain asylum claims. The bill was authored by Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.), Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) and Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.). Trump discouraged GOP lawmakers from supporting the bill, indicating it would be bad politically.

Georgia set to play key role

Biden won Georgia in 2020 by a margin of roughly 12,000 votes, and Democratic victories in Senate races in the state helped the party win and later retain control of the Senate.

But polling shows Biden has an uphill battle in the state with just under eight months left until Election Day.

A Decision Desk HQ average of polls from Georgia shows Trump leading Biden by roughly 7 percentage points in a hypothetical head-to-head matchup. The Biden campaign has argued polling overestimates Trump’s strength, however, and that more voters will rally behind the president as the threat of a second Trump term crystalizes.