Democratic strategist Paul Begala said on Tuesday that President Biden’s campaign should capitalize on people’s fear and present former President Trump as a threat to their way of life.
“There‘s only two ways to run for office: unopposed and scared. And I think the Biden people ought to be scared,” Begala said on CNN, where he serves as a political commentator.
“I think he‘s done a great job, but this fixation on getting credit for his accomplishments, I think it goes about it the wrong way,” he continued. “Bill Clinton didn‘t get credit for his economy until Newt Gingrich shut down the government. Barack Obama didn‘t get credit for ObamaCare until the Republicans tried to repeal it.”
“What the Biden campaign needs to do is go on the attack, and the attack needs to be not…not, ‘Oh, Trump is a crook.’ It should be, ‘Trump is a threat,’” Begala added.
As polling has consistently demonstrated, voters are unaware of many of Biden’s signature achievements and similarly do not credit him with the country’s economic recovery — his campaign has sought to inform voters of those wins, while also acknowledging their enduring struggles.
Begala said he thinks that’s the wrong approach.
Biden should instead focus on highlighting what he described as Trump’s threat to specific policies Biden has signed into law or passed through executive action, Begala argued.
For example, “’We together,’ Biden should say, ‘cut the price of insulin from $300 to 35 bucks. Trump is a threat to that, he’ll repeal it; we expanded health care and cut your health premiums. Trump wants to repeal that; we produced more energy than ever without sacrificing our environmental laws. Trump wants to sell out to big oil, let them raise your prices and pollute our environment,’” Begala said.
Begala argued the best course of action was to “go at Trump as a threat to Biden’s accomplishments,” which would give Biden due credit for the administration’s accomplishments and dissuade voters from casting ballots for Trump.
The Biden campaign’s current strategy of saying, “‘Give me a gold star,'” is the wrong way to frame the matchup, Begala argued.
“It should be all about Trump as a threat to your middle-class life,” he said.