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In the heated 2020 match-up between Democrat Joe Biden and Republican President Donald Trump, Wilmington—-in name at least—became a focal point Wednesday as a hotbed of political activity. But it was Biden taking a rare trip out into the city that was notable.
Biden peeked his head out of his hideout in Delaware to give a speech at a mostly-empty auditorium in his hometown in Delaware. President Donald Trump gave a rousing speech in North Carolina to an open-air crowd.
Both cities were named Wilmington—named for for the same man—Spencer Compton, the British First Earl of Wilmington. Both are supporting Biden, though there have been some celebrities backing Trump.
Both candidates in the 2020 presidential election are trying to appeal to their base. Trump has spent recent weeks accusing Biden of not playing along.
"Joe Biden would have been much better served getting out there and defining his candidacy and what he's running for," Trump senior campaign adviser told Newsweek.
Jason Miller, a senior adviser to the Trump campaign called it a "double-edged sword."
"President Trump's ideas stack up even better when they are stacked up to Joe Biden's," Miller said.
Will Biden continue stay away or embrace the campaign trail he has shunned? The Trump campaign has argued that Biden is staying off the campaign trail because he doesn't want to face Trump, but the Biden camp has denied those accusations.
Biden is scheduled to travel to Kenosha, Wisconsin on Thursday, and will meet with communities affected by the shooting of Jacob Blake, who was shot in the back seven times by police last month.
President Donald Trump traveled to Kenhosha on Wednesday, and said he stood by law enforcement while condemning supporters of the protests.
"He won't call the radicals for what they are," Trump campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh told reporters Wednesday.
Poll analysis site RealClearPolitics reports that Biden remains ahead in the polls in battleground states, but his lead has narrowed. At the start of July, Biden had a 6.7 point lead in those states, but that has winnowed to 2.5 percent in the same analysis.
Trump and Biden both tried to make the case for being the president who would bring the country out of calamity.
"If President Trump and his administration had done their jobs, America's schools would be open," Biden said today, as many schools evaluate their options for online learning and other instructional techniques.
Trump has encouraged schools to reopen as soon as possible for classes to resume in the fall.
About the writer
Elizabeth Crisp is a Washington Correspondent for Newsweek, covering the White House and Congress.
She previously was the Washington Correspondent for ... Read more