President Joe Biden previewed Democrats’ counterprogramming of next week’s Republican National Convention during a rowdy campaign event Friday in Michigan, portraying the Heritage Foundation‘s Project 2025 as “a nightmare.”
Former President Donald Trump has sought to distance himself from the conservative think tank’s policy proposals, with the Republican convention’s platform representing his own positions. But in Detroit, Biden described Project 2025 as “a project built for Trump” being “run and paid for by Trump people.”
“Folks, Project 2025 is the biggest attack on our system of government and on our personal freedom that has ever been proposed in the history of this country,” Biden told the crowd Friday. “And here is the nightmare it would unleash.”
“It’s time for us to stop treating politics like its entertainment or a reality TV show,” he said. “Another four years of Donald Trump is deadly serious. Project 2025 is deadly serious.”
His earlier address to supporters in an overflow room was also Trump-focused, telling them, “It’s going to be all about Trump from here on out.’”
Biden’s trip to Michigan, his fourth this year, is his first post-press conference event as he tries to convince Democrats they should keep him as their nominee after last month’s debate and last week’s interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos. Rep. Mike Levin (D-CA) on Friday became the 19th Democrat to implore him to step aside before next month’s Democratic National Convention despite the president’s steadier press conference on the sidelines of the 75th NATO summit. During his hourlong press conference, watched by approximately 22.5 million people, he confused Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin and Vice President Kamala Harris and Trump.
Biden’s Michigan event was staged at the same Detroit school, Renaissance High School, where the president promised as a 2020 Democratic primary candidate to be a “bridge” to the party’s next generation of leaders. Notably not attending the rally was Reps. Hillary Scholten, Elissa Slotkin, and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), the first of whom this week encouraged Biden to stand aside, the second of whom whose Senate race was recategorized as a toss-up post-debate, and the third of whom has protested his Middle East approach. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI) and United Auto Workers president Shawn Fain were also not in attendance, citing scheduling conflicts.
But regardless of the national discussion surrounding his nomination, Biden was greeted with chants of, “Don’t you quit!” and was later interrupted by chants of, “We’ve got your back!”
“Motown is Joe-town,” Biden said, referring to a sign.
During an earlier unannounced event at Garage Grill and Fuel Bar in Northville, Michigan, Biden told participants he is “OK” amid concerns about his age and mental acuity after the debate in which he appeared to struggle.
“We have real opportunities, and so we’ve got to finish the job,” he said. “I promise you, I am — I’m OK. Thank you.”
Biden also laid out his plan for the first 100 days of his hypothetical second term, including introducing a bill to restore Roe v. Wade, adding he intends to sign the John Lewis Voting Rights Act and Freedom to Vote Act into law. He described wanting to run for something as opposed to against someone.
“We’re going to end medical debt,” he said. “We’ve already made sure medical debt can no longer be put on your credit report. We can wipe out all medical debt for pennies on the dollar.”
“We’re going to raise the federal minimum wage,” he continued. “We’re going to pass the PRO Act and end union-busting once and for all. We are going to ban assault weapons. We are going to keep leading the world on climate and clean energy.”
Michigan is a must-win battleground state for Biden that is part of the so-called blue wall that Trump cracked in 2016 against then-Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. Biden’s own team underscored its importance in a memo this week.
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“Right now, winning the blue wall states — Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania — is the clearest pathway to that aim, but we also believe that the sunbelt states are not out of reach,” Biden campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon and campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez wrote.
Biden has another interview next week, this time with NBC’s Lester Holt, while he is in Austin, Texas, on Monday to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act. He then travels to Las Vegas for the 115th NAACP National Convention on Tuesday and the UnidosUS Annual Conference on Wednesday.
