As President Joe Biden seeks re-election, his primary challenger Marianne Williamson has taken an increasingly negative tone towards his policies.
Williamson’s campaign manager Peter Daou has criticized Biden for pushing for more military spending, oil drilling, and for presiding over more Covid-19 deaths than former President Donald Trump.
Williamson, who launched her campaign in March, is appealing to Democrats who do not want Biden to be the party’s nominee and she made an appearance on CSPAN.
Still, she and fellow challenger Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who launched his campaign in April, are struggling to gain media coverage and are being ridiculed by the political establishment and corporate-owned media outlets.
However, both challengers are gaining support from young and progressive voters who are concerned about Biden’s policies on climate change, anti-worker measures, warmongering, and immigration.
Williamson has criticized the government’s spending on national security, arguing that millions of people are not secure in their homes, jobs, or healthcare.
“We spend $858 billion a year on ‘national security,’ while millions are not secure in their homes, secure in their jobs, secure they’ll get healthcare if they get sick, or secure that they will have enough food to eat, clean water to drink, or clean air to breathe,” said Williamson.
She is advocating for transparency and honesty in government to earn back the trust of the American people, themes that are similar to Kennedy’s.
Kennedy has focused on dismantling the surveillance state, stopping the prosecution of whistleblowers, and investigating crimes exposed by them.
He has also criticized Biden’s assurance that the banking system is “safe and sound” while bank stocks are crashing.
Kennedy’s early surge to 19% in the polls suggests he may be a genuine threat to Biden.
The two challengers are also highlighting the root causes of the immigration crisis, blaming U.S. policies such as the War on Drugs, U.S.-funded dictators, juntas, paramilitaries, and death squads, neoliberal extraction of resources, and unpayable debts.
Biden, meanwhile, is employing a “rose garden strategy” of ignoring his primary opponents in the hope that they will not gather momentum.
As Williamson and Kennedy gain support, his strategy will be ineffective at securing his re-election.
At 80, Biden is the oldest person to serve as president and many Democrats are concerned about whether he gives them the best chance at winning, but corporate-owned media outlets echo the obviously false suggestion that the former vice president and longtime Delaware senator “is unlikely to face a serious challenge for the nomination.”
Biden’s approval rating nose-dived after the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan but it is gotten even worse as his administration failed to grapple with inflation.
Even if Biden can hold his own in a rematch with Trump, he seems unlikely to prevail against another Republican such as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, candidates that Kennedy or Williamson could beat hands down.
As Biden keeps uttering the phrase “let’s finish the job” —a line he repeated 12 times during in his State of the Union address and used in his announcement that he will be a candidate in the 2024 presidential election— he reminds Americans that he has failed to get the job done.
His fight for the “soul of the nation” has remained elusive amid the turbulent economy, a lack of legal action to hold Donald Trump accountable, worsening climate change, the crumbling middle class devasted by unbridled inflation.
Biden talks about containing drug costs, expanding Medicaid, increasing taxes on billionaires, strengthening antitrust enforcement, making housing more affordable, funding universal pre-K, increasing vocational job opportunities, pushing for police reform and banning assault-style weapons — but these are all things he has not done.
Biden, who would be 86 at the end of a second term, is betting his first-term legislative achievements and more than 50 years of experience in Washington will count for more than concerns over his age.
Biden the phrase that speech in February, referring
Biden ended Tuesday’s with the phrase “let’s finish the job,” a line he first tested out in his State of the Union address this year.
Biden repeated the phrase 12 times during that speech in February, referring to rebuilding the middle class, capping the cost of insulin, expanding Medicaid, acting on climate change, increasing taxes on billionaires, strengthening antitrust enforcement, getting more affordable housing, funding universal pre-K, increasing vocational job opportunities, pushing for police reform and banning assault-style weapons.