‘How Could You Not Rethink Some Of The Strategy?’: Biden Campaign Official Grilled Post-Debate

3 months ago

During Friday’s press gaggle aboard Air Force One, Biden campaign communications director Michael Tyler was asked about the campaign’s strategy.

Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:

https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript

Stay Connected
Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes
More From Forbes: http://forbes.com

Transcript

00:00Is the strategy going to change at all now after this debate?

00:03I mean, President Biden today said that he's not as good a debater as he once was.

00:08He says he has a cold.

00:09So kind of which is it and how is the strategy going to change going forward?

00:13The strategy doesn't change at all.

00:14Our strategy, as I just said, moving forward is to relentlessly communicate directly with the American people.

00:18Between June 28th and November, we are going to, the president right now, what did he do after he got off the debate stage?

00:24He went straight to North Carolina to rally the troops here in the Tar Heel State,

00:28where the vice president is touching down out west in Nevada doing the exact same thing.

00:32Right now, we're going to relentlessly communicate across the airwaves, on the ground.

00:36We have 300 field offices that are opened up.

00:38We're going to relentlessly work to reach the voters.

00:41They're going to decide the pathway to 270 electoral votes.

00:44We have the candidate to beat Donald Trump in 2020.

00:47We have the team to beat Donald Trump in 2020.

00:49And we are confident that if we keep our heads down and do the work,

00:52the American people are once again going to side with Joe Biden.

00:54But age continues to be an issue for this campaign.

00:57So after last night, how could you not rethink some of the strategy here?

01:01Well, listen, age, the president himself has said it's fair for the American people to consider age.

01:05But what's clear is that age is not going to be the contrast in this race.

01:11Joe Biden is 81 years old. Donald Trump is 78 years old.

01:14Joe Biden, every single day, is fighting for an economy that actually works for working people.

01:19That's fundamentally what they're going to vote on.

01:20They're going to vote about, on the issues.

01:22They're going to vote for the candidate who is actually fighting for them.

01:25And it is very clear on all the issues that matter from people's economic well-being

01:29to which candidate is actually going to respect and restore a woman's fundamental right

01:34to make her own choices about her body, to defending and protecting our democracy.

01:38The only candidate fighting for them is Joe Biden.

01:40Donald Trump clearly fighting for himself and fighting against the American people on all those issues.

01:45That's how the voters are going to fundamentally make their decision.

01:47Did you feel like the president performed differently in the debate prep?

01:50Did you see any kind of difference?

01:52The president himself said he didn't have the best night.

01:55I think everybody understands that.

01:57And what you saw him to do today was to get right back up and carry on the fight.

02:02That's exactly what people in North Carolina saw.

02:03That's what people across America are going to see.

02:05That's what they're going to see in the days to come.

02:07This is a president who understands that he's never going to stop fighting for the American people.

02:12That's what we'll continue to do.

02:13We're going to wrap it up.

02:14A million people watched the debate last night.

02:15A lot fewer will have seen the president's performance in North Carolina today.

02:19So how do you make up for that gap of the people who just saw the image last night

02:23and did not see the rally that you guys are excited about today?

02:26That's why you have a campaign to relentlessly communicate the president, his vision, his message.

02:31It's not just the travel on the ground.

02:33It's not just on television.

02:34It's how we package and disseminate content.

02:37I would actually look at a lot of the work that we did with content creators,

02:39not just last night, but continuing to today.

02:41We're going to continue to communicate relentlessly and use all channels of communication

02:45to make sure that people actually see the fighter in Joe Biden who got up on that stage today

02:49and will do so in the weeks to come.

02:51A rally is vastly different than a debate.

02:54So back to sort of the strategy angle, if they are going to have a second matchup in September,

02:59what is the actual strategic difference in preparation

03:02so that you have more of what happened today at the rally

03:04and less of what happened last night at the debate?

03:06We'll talk more about the second debate as we get closer to the second debate.

03:09What we're focused on right now on June 28th is doing what we're doing today,

03:13getting back out on the stump, communicating directly with the voters

03:16that are going to decide the election in the battleground states.

03:18You have the president here in North Carolina, again, the vice president in Nevada,

03:23on the ground talking with the voters in those states that are going to decide this election.

03:27I think you saw how North Carolinians responded to the president's message and his vision today in North Carolina.

03:33You're going to see the same thing out west where people get a chance to see Kamala Harris.

03:37And that's what our focus is going to be on, right?

03:39Directly engaging the voters, making sure that all of our organizers,

03:42we have over 1,000 organizers across all the battleground states

03:45who are relentlessly doing the work on the ground.

03:47Our paid advertisements continue to be aggressive.

03:50They continue to outpace the work that Donald Trump is doing,

03:54who still, the vast majority of the money that his campaign is raising is still doing things like

03:59paying legal fees for somebody who's now a convicted felon, right?

04:01I think it's in stark contrast.

04:03Given the polarized electorate that we're in,

04:05given the fact that both of these candidates are so well-known,

04:08the work that the candidates and the campaigns are doing

04:11to turn out and organize their voters matters that much more.

04:15So that's what this campaign is going to be focused on as we head into the summer.

‘How Could You Not Rethink Some Of The Strategy?’: Biden Campaign Official Grilled Post-Debate

Category

Transcript

Recommended