Biden heads to Michigan on high-visibility tour to shore up support
President Joe Biden ends his fightback week by flying to Detroit, Michigan , on Friday in an effort to shore up key support and turn the focus on to Donald Trump amid a growing wave of calls for him to end his reelection campaign. He arrives after hobnobbing with world leaders at the NATO summit in Washington and speaking at a press conference on Thursday evening, where he mixed foreign policy with flubs for an hour.
He insisted that he plans to remain in the race despite a disastrous debate performance that raised questions about the 81-year-old's fitness for office. Since then he has been on a non-stop effort to reassure lawmakers and donors that he can still do the job.
But a string of interviews, visits to key states and a rare single-handed press conference have done little to stem calls for him to step aside. His campaign said the Detroit event would allow him 'to contrast the dangers of Trump's Project 2025’s agenda with the promise of what America can accomplish in the first 100 days of a second Biden term.'
Project 2025 is a roadmap for a new Trump administration drawn up by his allies, although the former president has tried to distance himself from it. The guest list, including key black activists and union leaders, illustrates the task at hand: Show that he retains grassroots support while the 'elite', as Biden called them this week, loses their nerve.
At the same time, his reelection campaign has indirectly admitted that his path to the White House has narrowed. It said that the 'blue wall' of states such as Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin offers the 'clearest pathway' to winning the electoral college. And so he returns to the blue-collar, blue wall city of Detroit. It is his third trip to the city this year and his fourth to the state of Michigan. The speakers will include Academy Award winning actress Octavia Spencer, alongside a pastor, the city's mayor and the state party chairman.
Other key figures will not be there. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who is also co-chair of Biden's, campaign is out of state. And Biden won't have far to look for reminders of the challenge ahead. Rep. Hillary Scholten, who faces a difficult reelection fight in western Michigan, went public with her concerns on Thursday and called on Biden to stand aside.
'With the challenges facing our country in 2025 and beyond, it is essential that we have the strongest possible candidate leading the top of the ticket—not just to win, but to govern,' she said. She was the first member of Congress from the state to break ranks.
Trump won Michigan in 2016, but Biden won it back by three percentage points. Rolling averages of state polls suggest Trump has a very narrow lead this time around. At his press conference, Biden said the polling data was 'premature.' 'The campaign really hasn't even started,' he said. 'I mean, it hasn't started in earnest yet. Most of the time, it doesn't start till after September after Labor Day.
'So a lot can happen.' The president will spend the weekend at his Delaware beach home. On Monday it's Austin, Texas, where Biden will speak about the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act and lay out proposals to address the role of the Supreme Court. Then it is on to Las Vegas, Nevada, where he will outline proposals to make housing more affordable.
