President Joe Biden kicked off a travel blitz Friday after his State of the Union address, heading to the critical swing state of Pennsylvania to drive home some of the key points he delivered during Thursday’s address.
The president’s speech in a solidly Democratic county almost immediately attacked former President Donald Trump. Biden criticized his record on reproductive rights issues and invoked a family affected by Alabama’s controversial state Supreme Court ruling that embryos are considered children, which prompted in vitro fertilization providers to halt services.
“Do you know why it happened? I’ll tell you why. One reason: Donald Trump,” Biden said Friday of that family’s paused IVF plans. “He came to office determined to overturn Roe v. Wade. In fact, he’s bragged about it repeatedly.”
The president then pivoted to issues including cooling inflation, lowering prescription drug prices and his demand to ban assault weapons.
“Too many corporations raise their prices and pad their profits, charging you more and more for less and less,” Biden said. “That’s why we’re cracking down on corporations engaged in price gouging and deceptive pricing.”
Biden also drew a contrast between his governing philosophy and Trump’s.
“My lifetime has taught me to embrace the future. I mean it sincerely: freedom, democracy, [and a] future based on the core values that have defined America,” Biden said. “Honesty, decency, fairness, equality.”
“Donald Trump sees the story differently,” Biden added. “He sees a story of resentment, revenge, retribution.”
The audience included people who have volunteered or worked for the Democratic Party, the Biden campaign or a similar organization. The high-energy crowd occasionally broke into chants of “four more years.”
Before the president’s speech, first lady Jill Biden delivered a forceful rebuke of her husband’s predecessor: “Donald Trump insults our veterans and disparages those who died in war, calling them ‘losers’ and ‘suckers.’ How dare he?”
“We must meet this moment as if our rights are at stake, because they are,” the first lady said. “As if our democracy is on the line, because it is.”
Aside from the State of the Union, Friday’s speech saw the largest audience for Biden since a January speech centered around abortion rights, which was interrupted more than a dozen times by anti-war protesters criticizing Biden’s response to the Israel-Hamas war.
The president’s speech kicks off what the campaign is calling a “month of action,” during which Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris will visit every battleground state.
Biden will visit Georgia on Saturday, New Hampshire on Monday, Wisconsin on Wednesday and Michigan on Thursday, according to the campaign. Meanwhile, Harris visited Arizona on Friday and will travel to Nevada on Saturday, zeroing in on mobilizing Latino voters.
Of those states, Biden flipped Georgia, Wisconsin, Michigan and Arizona blue in 2020.
The president’s Cabinet and senior administration officials are also fanning across the country this month, with more than two dozen trips to states including Texas, Ohio, Florida and New York, according to the White House.
The campaign announced on Friday that “Team Biden-Harris” will open 100 offices, onboard at least 350 new staffers in battleground states, and is launching a six-week, $30 million ad buy with “intentional and sizable buys into Hispanic, African American, and AANHPI outlets and radio,” according to the campaign. The campaign often uses “Team Biden-Harris” as a shorthand to refer to itself and affiliated groups, such as the Democratic National Committee.
The $30 million ad buy is in a similar range as certain super PAC ad spending this campaign cycle. The pro-Biden super PAC Future Forward has spent about $20.8 million, the pro-Trump super PAC MAGA Inc. has spent $39.5 million, the pro-Ron DeSantis super PAC Never Back Down spent about $40.2 million, and the pro-Nikki Haley super PAC SFA Fund spent $64.4 million, according to AdImpact.
