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Last Friday, two 70-year-old grandfathers competed for younger relative vigor, as President Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden faced each other in one of the first clear contests in the contest. presidential election of 2020.
The war of words – whether playful provocations or direct retaliation – emphasizes that the two men generally regard each other as their main political stumbling block, with Biden making Trump the centerpiece of his campaign and questioning his friends and advisers on Biden's threat.
Biden, a former Democratic senator from Delaware who served for eight years as president of President Barack Obama, officially launched Thursday his candidacy for the Democratic nomination for 2020 with an explicit rejection of Mr. Trump and its values, with particular emphasis on the President's statement. were "very kind people on both sides" of the deadly clashes between white supremacists and counter-protesters in Charlottesville in 2017.
Trump immediately reacted by insulting Biden's intelligence on Twitter and calling it "Sleepy Joe". If Biden can defeat nearly two dozen Democratic hopefuls, Trump wrote, "I'll see you at the Gate!"
But on Friday, the two men were already out of the fence, engaged in a series of quarrels in which the 72-year-old president and the 76-year-old former vice-president seemed determined to determine who was the most energetic and the most manly.
Leaving the White House Friday morning, Trump told reporters how "youngest of all people" was.
"I am a young and dynamic man," said Trump, apparently contrasting with Biden.
When asked in ABC's "The View" that Trump called him "Sleepy Joe," Biden smiled.
"This is the first time I have spoken this way," he said. Usually, adds Biden, it's the opposite: "Hyper Joe".
The machismo contest between the two generations – another candidate for the Democratic nomination, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), At age 77 – sparked some amusement among the political spectators. "I'm not sure that" Grumpy Old Men 3 "is the debate that the United States wants or needs at the moment," Republican strategist Michael Steel said.
But for Trump, his nicknames and searches at Biden belie a deeper concern: for the moment, at least, Trump and those who are in his orbit consider Biden as his most powerful rival, according to people close to the thought of Trump and his team.
Biden appears with Ana Navarro, co-host of "The View", left, and Sunny Hostin during a Friday appearance on the talk show. (Lorenzo Bevilaqua / AP)
A councilor who recently spoke to Trump about the campaign said he was focusing on Biden and Sanders, asking what were their launches and popularity and which candidate would be a more formidable enemy. Some campaigners say Biden is a particular threat in places like Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. He declares that Trump won in 2016 with the support of working-clbad whites.
A second advisor said that Trump's current interest in Biden was simply because the Democratic challenger dominated the cable news that the president was consuming and running polls that the president was watching closely. Friday afternoon, the Biden campaign has further strengthened its dominance by announcing that he had collected $ 6.3 million during his first 24 hours of candidacy, a figure that exceeds the goals of other Democrats.
Others on Trump's orbit, however, say that even though Biden may be the candidate of the day, they are skeptical about his ability to stay.
"I do not see how Biden will be able to survive the badault of the left and the right," said Andy Surabian, Republican strategist and former head of Trump White House. "Because he's not only running the Democratic primaries, but he's also currently perceived by most observers as the most powerful opponent of a general election, the Republicans are going to throw him as many arrows as his main opponents, and this is the key element – the attacks will come from all angles. "
The Trump campaign, for its part, still hopes to focus on the Democrats more broadly, describing them broadly as Socialists. The director of campaign communications, Tim Murtaugh, said the goal was for the prospective Democratic candidate to be "confronted with all the socialist policies he has adopted to win this nomination."
"There is no centrist path in the Democratic primary, and Joe Biden acknowledged it when he declared that he held the most" progressive "record of all the candidates and that he had never been described as moderate in Delaware, "Murtaugh said in a statement. statement sent by email.
Biden's announcement video began with a discussion of the Charlottesville and Trump statement.
"With these words, the President of the United States has attributed a moral equivalence between those who propagate hatred and those who have the courage to oppose it," said Biden, looking directly into the camera. "And at that time, I knew that the threat to this nation was different from the one I had ever seen in my life."
The focus on Trump's response to Charlottesville – one of the most controversial moments of the presidency – forced Trump on the defensive. On Friday, the president said that he was simply referring to people present at the rally to protest the removal of a monument to Robert E. Lee, who, he added, "was the only one in the world." 39, one of the great generals.
Biden's campaign advisers said they welcome the fight against Trump because it's a way to draw a contrast with the general election. One of the main focuses of Biden's campaign is the argument that he is best placed to counter Trump by seducing the Midwestern industrial voters that he adopted in 2016, and advisers cite public and private polls that show Biden has more power than any other Democrat. .
But they are also eager to show the former vice president's ability to confront Trump on substantive and petty issues in a way that most Democrats have struggled to do.
"If he looks young and dynamic compared to me, I probably should go home," Biden said during his appearance on "The View". "Everyone knows who Donald Trump is.The best way to judge me is to look in. See if I have energy and ability. It's a demonstration case."
Despite all the differences that both candidates wish to highlight, the similarities abound. The two politicians are old-school politicians who have long had access to the corridors of power – politics for Biden, finance and entertainment for Trump – but still consider themselves strangers. Biden grew up in an Irish Catholic working family and Trump still sees himself as the
Queens neighborhood boy who could never get acceptance from the Manhattan elites.
They have also embraced a reputation for authenticity, thus constituting an badet to other politicians, which could be a handicap leading to frequent blunders.
Biden, again and again, has also demonstrated a Trump-like refusal to apologize. Friday, this resistance was visible while he refused to apologize for anything during his interview on "The View".
Asked about her interactions with women who said that they felt uncomfortable when he hugged them, leaned his forehead against theirs, rubbed their noses with them or sniffed their hair, he responded that he had learned a lesson, but that he was not really sorry.
"Then I invaded your space," Biden said. "I'm sorry that has happened. But – but I'm not sorry in that I think I did something that was intentionally designed to do something wrong or inappropriate. "
Trump, meanwhile, seemed determined to taunt Biden, as well as any other potential threat for 2020 in democratic matters.
"I would never say anyone is too old," said the president Friday morning, before doing exactly that. "But I know that they make me all look very young, both in terms of age and, I think, in terms of energy."
Josh Dawsey and Matt Viser contributed to this report.
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