Leading Democrats tell Biden to keep criticizing Trump and to cease discussing his policy record, saying that “he needs to stop.”

President Biden is being urged by a number of prominent Democrats to change his approach in the run-up to the 2024 election and focus more on criticizing former President Trump rather than highlighting his own legislative accomplishments. As one prominent Democrat put it to CNN, “He wants the credit, but it’s not working.” “He needs to stop.” The rationale for their concerns, according to four people with close ties to the White House who detailed private discussions with the Biden campaign, is straightforward: the president’s policy accomplishments are failing to resonate or influence voters. According to the outside advisers, they requested that the Biden campaign concentrate on the economics during the CNN Presidential Debate on Thursday. Additionally, they recommended setting aside time to question Trump’s ties to business and how his planned policies would make inflation even worse. Imagine being in politics for fifty years of your life and suddenly becoming the guy. One significant donor told CNN, “You want people to know you’re doing a really good job.” “I think Biden can’t help but talk about what a good job he’s done.”

Some of the advise seems to have been heeded by Biden’s campaign. Before the debate, a new advertisement makes the claim that Trump hasn’t done much to support middle-class households. The narrator of the commercial claims, “Donald Trump loves to attack Joe Biden because he’s focused on revenge, and he has no plan to help the middle class.” The advertisement is a part of a $50 million paid television campaign that will run throughout June, targeting voters in battleground states. According to Ipsos poll, more than 80% of participants think that inflation and the state of the economy will have a significant impact on their vote. Regarding these issues, Trump outscored Biden by 14 points. In a recent Fox News poll, one-third of respondents stated that the economy is doing very well or is in good shape, which is a record high for Biden’s administration. Last month’s high was 30% (as well as September 2021). Fifty-nine percent indicated they are making progress or staying the same financially, up five points since the summer of last year. Forty-four percent feel hopeful about the state of the economy, up nine points from 2023. Even while the economy is feeling better, we are still very far from boom times: The majority, 56%, is negative about the economy, 4/10 believe they are slipping behind financially, and 2/3 consider the situation to be only fair or poor (68%).