WASHINGTON — On a day that rattled the country and the race for the White House, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden tried to strike a delicate balance as he appeared at a Michigan campaign stop wearing a blue surgical face mask.
After noting he was delayed by two coronavirus tests — both negative — he offered his prayers and hopes for a quick recovery to President Trump and the first lady, whose latest tests, the nation learned Friday morning, were positive.
“This is not a matter of politics,” Biden told about 50 socially distanced reporters and union members at a union hall in Grand Rapids, Mich. “It’s a bracing reminder to all of us, that we have to take this virus, seriously.”
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But with a little over a month before Election Day, politics was hard to avoid for Biden and other Democrats reacting to the stunning news about Trump. Biden framed the nation’s response to the pandemic in terms of patriotic duty, urging everyone to do what Trump has pointedly not done in many instances: follow the science and listen to the experts.
“It’s not about being a tough guy," he said. "It’s about doing your part. Wearing a mask is not only going to protect you but also protects those around you.”
Democrats, anti-Trump political action committees, and independent strategists spent Friday working through the implications — and the potential traps — of their response, attempting to strike a delicate balance between offering prayers and well wishes to the president and his family while reminding voters of Trump’s frequent dismissive comments and actions downplaying the threat of the virus.
“This is tragic. It’s very sad,” Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told MSNBC. “But ... going into crowds, unmasked and all the rest was sort of a brazen invitation for something like this to happen. Sad that it did, but nonetheless, hopeful that it will be a transition to a saner approach to what this virus is all about.”
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Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren’s words carried a sharper edge, even as she said her thoughts were with the Trumps and other White House staff members who tested positive — and the “millions of other Americans who have survived COVID-19 or are still sick.”
“The President spent months undermining the work of our doctors and scientists, while he failed to help states and communities contain the outbreak,” Warren said in a statement. “He mocked people for wearing masks and held super-spreader events that disregarded the health of thousands.”
“It didn’t have to be this way,” Massachusetts Representative Ayanna Pressley said, taking a more subtle stab at the president’s pandemic response in her own statement wishing the Trumps and anyone infected on the White House staff a full recovery.
Democrats tried to use Trump’s positive test to highlight the need for more coronavirus aid as negotiations continued with the White House over the cost of a legislative package. And they sought to use the concern that the virus might have spread at the event last Saturday in which Trump announced the Supreme Court nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to call for a delay in upcoming hearings designed to get her confirmed before the election.
Some believed the news would simply speak for itself.
“We could not have cut an ad more powerful to drive home the impact of how serious this is and how unserious the president has been taking it than the president’s Tweet last night announcing that he has tested positive,” said Mike Madrid, a cofounder of the Lincoln Project, a PAC of anti-Trump Republicans that has been flooding battleground states with ads highlighting the Trump administration’s slow federal response to the pandemic.
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The coronavirus outbreak all but froze the 2020 presidential campaign in March, forcing Biden, 77, and Trump, now 74, to go digital in an effort to avoid the large gatherings that public health officials warned would become hot spots for contagion and could endanger the candidates' own health.
Trump resumed in-person rallies in June, as his campaign mocked Biden’s “basement strategy" of continuing until recently to address voters from his home through virtual events.
But Biden’s cautious approach, which since Labor Day has included small, socially distanced, in-person events in battleground states, appeared to be vindicated as the campaign heads into its final month. While Trump’s campaign canceled a Florida rally scheduled for Friday night and upcoming live events for the foreseeable future, Biden was in crucial Michigan to meet with working families in Grand Rapids.
"He was never running a ‘basement strategy,'” said Malcom Kenyatta, a Pennsylvania state representative and Biden surrogate. “He was running a science-based strategy. He was listening to the experts.”
It’s unclear how the Trump hospitalization could affect Biden’s campaigning approach. Staffers and volunteers at Biden events have already gone to great lengths to consider safety precautions. Just Thursday, Biden’s campaign announced it had changed course on sending volunteers to knock on voters doors — a traditional tactic the Trump team has been doing for months — and planned a targeted program with coronavirus safety precautions to send hundreds of volunteers to canvass voters in battleground states who they had not been able to reach by phone.
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In Michigan on Friday, the Biden campaign was holding union phone banks with callers reaching out to fellow union members.
At the gathering at the local union office, Biden touted his economic recovery plans and his roots in Scranton, Pa., which he said allowed him to understand the essential workers on the front lines of the pandemic, many of whom have been left behind by “the most unequal economic recovery in modern history.”
“We can get this pandemic under control,” he said. “So we can get our economy working again for everyone, but this cannot be a partisan moment.”
In the coming days, Biden staffers might need to assess their own safety measures, but Democratic analyst Jamal Simmons warned now was not the time to slow down.
“American politics has been in uncharted territory for a long time,” he said. “The Biden campaign is going to have to suss this out, but the former vice president has to keep pressing the case.”
Still, in a sign of respect, the Biden campaign reportedly called a halt on Friday to its negative campaign ads about Trump.
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Congressional Democrats tried to jab Trump’s often cavalier attitude toward the virus while not appearing insensitive.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer began a statement on the news by saying, “I join the nation in praying for the first family’s health and safety.” But then he launched into criticism.
“When you ignore the science, you don’t wear a mask, and you don’t follow social distancing guidelines, it puts you and everyone around you at risk,” he said. “Following science is a must.”
In a fund-raising appeal off the news for his political action committee, People First Future, former US housing secretary Julián Castro said he wouldn’t wish the virus on anyone.
“I hope for a speedy recovery for the president and first lady,” he said. “But I also hope this is a wake up call that America needs a plan to get us out of this pandemic and recession, not more divisive and dangerous rhetoric.”
Others were more blunt. Democratic consultant Chuck Rocha, a top presidential adviser to Senator Bernie Sanders and founder of the progressive Nuestro PAC, spent the summer conducting focus groups with Latino voters in battleground states across the country, and just weeks ago mailed out copies of Biden’s recovery plan with photos of him donning a mask.
“I am already putting together mailer pieces to send to Latino voters in Florida that say, ‘Donald Trump can’t protect himself from the virus, how can he protect the American people?’” Rocha said.
Reach Jazmine Ulloa at jazmine.ulloa@globe.com or on Twitter: @jazmineulloa.
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Biden and Democrats try to strike a balance between compassion and criticism of Trump on coronavirus - The Boston Globe
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