Joe Biden by Beatrice Gormley (free ebook reader for iphone TXT) 📕

claim a healthy economy; few Americans even believed the economy could recover before the next year. National polls showed Joe Biden with a significant lead over Donald Trump. The Trump campaign searched for the best way to turn voters against Biden.

One tack was to portray the former vice president as too old for the job of president. But Donald Trump was only four years younger than Joe Biden, and clearly overweight in contrast to trim, fit Biden. Another approach was to accuse Biden of going senile, based on his public slips of the tongue. But Trump himself made rambling, sometimes incoherent speeches, and he was mocked for boasting of a high score on his ten-minute test for dementia.

Trump repeatedly warned against mail-in voting. He claimed—against the evidence—that mail-in ballots could easily be faked. He suggested that the general election in November might have to be delayed because of the pandemic. However, even Republicans in Congress quickly pointed out that only Congress had the power to change an election date.

As the Black Lives Matter protests continued, Trump portrayed himself as the “law and order” president. He sent federal troops to Portland, Oregon, and other cities to quash the demonstrations. His campaign made a special appeal to women in the suburbs, where he had done well in 2016. But polls showed that suburban voters actually supported the protests, and they disapproved of Trump’s handling of the crisis.

Still, Biden’s campaign knew better than to count on the polls. After all, in the fall of 2016, Hillary Clinton had led Donald Trump in the polls, right up until the November election.

Biden still had to pick a vice presidential running mate. He promised to choose a woman, and he promised to announce his choice before the Democratic National Convention in late August.

President Joe Biden

On Tuesday, August 17, Joe Biden made a videoconference call. He asked the woman on the screen, “You ready to go to work?”

“Oh my God, I am so ready,” answered Kamala Harris. The senator from California, daughter of immigrants from India and Jamaica, was Biden’s choice for his vice presidential running mate.

Joe Biden sent out an email to his supporters, explaining why he’d chosen Senator Harris. “Smart, tough, and ready to lead,” he said of her. As he’d promised several months before, he’d picked a woman. Many of his advisors had thought he should pick a woman of color, and Kamala Harris was mixed-race Black and Indian.

Also important, Joe Biden wanted a running mate whom he felt comfortable with. Kamala Harris’s political positions, like Biden’s, were liberal, but not far left. And Biden already knew Harris through his son Beau. When Beau Biden had been attorney general of Delaware, she’d been attorney general of California. The two AGs had been friends, and Beau had respected her work highly.

Some commentators were surprised that Biden would pick someone who’d attacked him so forcefully on the debate stage just a year before. But Joe Biden didn’t hold grudges. And he wasn’t afraid of strong women.

“Uniting America” was the theme of the Democratic National Convention in 2020. Because of the COVID-19 virus, it was unlike any other convention in the history of the United States. Back in March 2019, the Democratic Convention had been planned to take place in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in July 2020. But by the summer of 2020 the coronavirus pandemic was raging. It wouldn’t have been safe for fifty thousand speakers, delegates, reporters, and volunteers to crowd together.

The dates of the convention were changed to August 17–20. Most of the events of the convention had to be recorded beforehand, or take place elsewhere and be broadcast live. Even Joe Biden and Kamala Harris did not travel to Milwaukee to accept their nominations. And no one spoke to a large live audience, to receive roars of applause.

However, the online format was a chance to include many ordinary people. One of the most touching appearances was by Brayden Harrington, a thirteen-year-old boy who stuttered. He’d met Joe Biden in New Hampshire early in the year, and Biden had taken time to talk with him one-on-one about how to overcome his stutter. “Joe Biden made me more confident about something that’s bothered me my whole life,” said Harrington. “Joe Biden cared. Imagine what he could do for all of us.”

Naturally, many well-known Democrats, including both Michelle and Barack Obama, praised Biden during the convention. But there were also a surprising number of high-profile Republicans speaking up for Joe. One of these was Cindy McCain, wife of the late senator John McCain of Arizona. She described Biden as a politician who fought hard for what he believed—but got things done in the government by reaching out to those who disagreed with him, like McCain.

The following Monday, August 24, the Republican National Convention opened in Charlotte, North Carolina. Because of the pandemic, many of these speakers were also recorded without an audience. But on August 27, President Trump gave his acceptance speech on the South Lawn of the White House, in front of a close-packed audience of over a thousand, most without face masks. Aside from the danger of spreading the virus, many were shocked that a president running for reelection would use the White House as a backdrop for a campaign speech. Federal law forbids the use of federal property for political campaigns, although technically the president is exempt from this law.

A major theme of the Republican Convention was that Joe Biden as president would be the front for the “radical left.” A TV ad for Trump had warned, “You won’t be safe in Joe Biden’s America.” Speakers accused Biden of being a socialist and of wanting to protect criminals from law-abiding citizens, instead of the other way around. President Trump predicted that if Biden won, the country would be taken over by “violent anarchists” who would destroy America.

In response, Joe Biden pointed out that the riots and shootings were taking place during Donald Trump’s presidency. And