President Joe Biden speaks during the White House Correspondents' Association dinner in 2022.Photo: Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty
As the Republican-led House finds itself consumed with chaos and infighting amid the search to replaceKevin McCarthyas speaker, PresidentJoe Biden’s reelection campaign is taking on a somewhat familiar strategy: using GOP lawmakers' and candidates' own words against them.
That means re-posting viral moments from Republican presidential debates, such as one in which former South Carolina Gov.Nikki Haleysaid, “Donald Trumpadded $8 trillion to our debtand our kids are never going to forgive us for this.”
The Biden campaign has seized on the recentremoval of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, sharing a slew of moments from Fox News in which Republicans slam their own party.
President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, who are running for reelection in 2024, walk and talk at the White House.AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster
“We do appreciate demonstrating to the American people that the Republican Party can’t tie their own shoes,” Flaherty tells PEOPLE. “At the end of the day, the best evidence for the Republican Party being unfit to govern is the Republican Party.”
Flaherty notes that the “sweet spot” for an effective campaign strategy is finding a moment that’s both substantive, and demonstrates the weaknesses of the opposing view.
“There’s a couple of elements: what performs well online and what actually changes minds,” he says. “The sweet spot is when you can find something that does both things.”
Those who are already Biden supporters, Flaherty says, “love seeing us fight back and that gets viral lift.” But the campaign has also seen impact from promoting clips of Republicans essentially acknowledging their own messes.
President Joe Biden delivers remarks on a debt limit deal struck through tense negotiations with House Republicans in May 2023.Anna Rose Layden/Getty Images
Anna Rose Layden/Getty Images
It’s a strategy President Biden’s campaign has utilized before.
When some far-right members of the party began using the phrase, “Let’s Go Brandon” as a code for “F— Joe Biden,” the campaign co-opted it, turning “Brandon” into the president’s alter-ego — one who gets things done.
A Biden 2024 campaign ad, featuring “Dark Brandon,” that appeared in Milwaukee and on FoxNews.com on the day of the first GOP debate.Biden for President
Biden for President
The satirical alter-ego “Dark Brandon” has been fashioned onto Biden 2024 merchandise, and products featuring the design now account for 44% of the campaign store’s orders and 54% of its revenue, according to a campaign official.
Dark Brandon also made bold appearance on the day of thefirst 2024 Republican debate— not only on billboards in Milwaukee, where eight GOP candidates took the stage, but in a digital ad onFoxNews.com.
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While Dark Brandon hasn’t been the primary focus of the campaign’s media strategy in recent days, he likely isn’t going anywhere. “Dark Brandon is a key part of how we talk about the president’s accomplishments,” Flaherty says. “He’s the patron saint of this new posture we’re taking.”
source: people.com
