President Joe Biden’s reelection team sought to preemptively hit back on former President Donald Trump’s speech to round out the Republican National Convention on Thursday night, arguing the nation already knows what the GOP nominee will say. 

What You Need To Know

  • President Joe Biden’s reelection team sought to preemptively hit back on former President Donald Trump’s speech to round out the Republican National Convention Thursday night
  • Trump, Biden’s deputy campaign manager Quentin Fulks argued to reporters in Milwaukee says the "same four or five things," mentioing the eocnomy, veterans, ending Russia's war in Ukraine and the border
  • It comes as Biden was taken off the campaign trail after testing positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday; Fulks said he is “feeling fine” and holding campaign calls on Thursday from his home in Delaware 
  • Sen. Alex Padilla, also in Milwaukee with the Biden campaign, responded to his colleague, Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., who is running for the state’s other senate seat, calling for the president to step out of the race on Wednesday, saying he “couldn't disagree more on this issue"

“Because Donald Trump says the same four or five things over and over again – all of them are about himself. Not a single one of them is true,” Biden’s deputy campaign manager, Quentin Fulks, told reporters in Milwaukee on Thursday, asserting that the former president will touch on the economy, veterans, ending Russia’s war in Ukraine and the southern border. 

Fulks went on to criticize Republicans for not following through on making the convention about bringing the country together after Trump called for unity following the attempt on this life at his rally in Pennsylvania over the weekend. 

“But the thing is, Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans don’t have a record of accomplishment to run on,” Fulks said. “So they use hate, extremism, division at his rallies to fire up his base, or he just lies about the record that doesn’t exist.”

Advocating for the Biden team in Milwaukee on Thursday, Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio, said Trump will ask Americans whether they were better off four years ago. 

“And he's going to ask Americans that famous question:. Are you better off today than you were four years ago?” Beatty said. “ Well, Donald, I've never been asked an easier question in my life.” 

She noted four years ago – which was during the COVID-19 pandemic – grocery store shelves were empty, the unemployment rate was soaring and people were “fighting over toilet paper.” 

“This November we're going to make America great again – and we're gonna do it by defeating Donald Trump at the ballot box in November and sending him back to Mar-a-Lago where he belongs,” she said. 

The news conference was held as Biden was taken off the campaign trail after testing positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday. Fulks said he is “feeling fine” and was holding campaign calls Thursday from his home in Delaware. 

Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., also in Milwaukee to support the Biden team, said the president isn’t “skipping a beat.” 

“Paxlovid? Yes. Bleach? No,” Padilla said, referencing Trump once talking about injecting bleach during the COVID pandemic. 

The White House said Biden received a dose of Paxlovid, a treatment for COVID. 

Padilla also responded to his colleague, Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., who is running for the state’s other Senate seat, calling for Biden to step out of the race on Wednesday. Padilla said he “couldn't disagree more on this issue.”

“I know having spoken to him personally, he is committed to the campaign, he is committed to winning in November,” Padilla said. 

The announcement by Schiff – widely considered the most notable Democrat in Congress to publicly call on the president to drop out – marked the first Biden defection in days in the wake of Saturday’s assassination attempt on Trump.

And it came amid reports that high-level Democratic members of Congress have privately expressed doubt to the president about his reelection chances. Fulks on Thursday insisted that the president is all in on his 2024 bid. 

“Our campaign is not working through any scenarios where President Biden is not the top of the ticket,” he said. “He is and will be the Democratic nominee.”