Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’ re-election campaign is not going very well.
Republican presumptive nominee Donald Trump leads the Democrat duo in most polls, including in the ever-important swing states. There’s even worse news for Biden when independent and third-party candidates are factored in, with Trump widening his lead to five percentage points in some scenarios.
To aid their struggling campaign, the Democrats have launched the Biden-Harris HQ page on X (formerly Twitter). The page regularly posts snippets from Trump’s campaign, or out-of-context comments designed to cause outrage and make social media users despise the former president.
The trouble is this form of negative campaigning can backfire spectacularly.
For example, on Tuesday, June 25, @BidenHQ posted a screenshot from CNN listing a number of Trump’s commitments to overhaul the government…. all of which seem pretty awesome. Give it a look:
In the replies, many agreed with Trump’s pledges.
Others noted how the Biden-Harris campaign was now effectively supporting Trump’s.
Although individual accounts will not alter the campaign, their existence alone is a good metaphor. Biden is struggling (in more ways than one), and so the launch of account which posts attack ads says a lot about the desperation within his campaign. By doing so, he runs a risk of promoting his rival to all those who do not think that Trump is necessarily evil.
Granted, Trump has not got to where he is today by refusing to attack his rival – if anything, he’s worse for it – but the Republican is not the incumbent. If the President is unable to promote the benefits of his tenure in office, he’s unlikely to win over many voters.
