For a candidate who has struggled at times
to get noticed on social media, Joe Biden finally got some
online attention on Thursday - for better or worse.
First, the Biden campaign posted a video on Twitter that
brutally took down President Donald Trump, suggesting he is the laughing stock to other world leaders. Then a heated
back-and-forth with an Iowa voter quickly went viral.
Together, the moments generated a digital buzz that has
often eluded Biden, whose campaign appeals most to traditional,
older Democratic voters. Such attention has generally been
enjoyed instead by some of his chief rivals in the 2020
Democratic presidential race.
The 77-year-old former vice president continues to lead
among Democrats in national polls and has so far withstood
challenges from US Senator Elizabeth Warren and others in the
battle for the party's nomination to take on Trump in the
November 2020 election.
The normally affable Biden lost his composure at a campaign
event in New Hampton, Iowa, on Thursday, sparring with a man in
the crowd who questioned him about his role in the Ukraine
scandal that has been dogging Trump.
"You're a damn liar, man," Biden told the man, who suggested
without evidence that Biden had helped his son Hunter land a
lucrative position with the Ukrainian oil company Burisma.
"No one has said my son has done anything wrong," Biden
said. "Get your words straight, jack."
The world is laughing at President Trump. They see him for what he really is: dangerously incompetent and incapable of world leadership.
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) December 5, 2019
We cannot give him four more years as commander in chief. pic.twitter.com/IR8K2k54YQ
Trump's request that Ukraine launch an investigation
targeting Joe Biden is at the center of the impeachment probe of
the president being conducted by the US House of
Representatives.
Trump has accused the Bidens of corruption, without offering
evidence. They have denied wrongdoing, and the allegations have
not been substantiated.
The heckler at the Iowa event also questioned Biden's
fitness for office. Biden responded by challenging the man to a
push-up contest or an IQ test - and appeared at one point to
call him "fat."
The video of the exchange quickly made the rounds on
Twitter. Trump's re-election campaign posted it, suggesting that
Biden had gone "berserk."
A Biden campaign aide later said online that Biden had said
"facts," not "fat."
Earlier, the Biden campaign had been basking in accolades
for its Twitter post playing off a clip taken at a NATO summit
in Britain this week that appeared to show Canadian Prime
Minister Justin Trudeau joking about Trump's press appearances
during a chat with other world leaders.
"The world is laughing," read the text over that clip and
others of Trump's trips abroad. "We need a leader the world
respects."
Democratic pundits and strategists on Twitter praised the
spot as perhaps Biden's most effective yet. As of Thursday
evening, it had garnered more than 9 million views. The campaign
soon posted it to Facebook and told Reuters it was also
promoting it to likely caucus-goers in the early presidential
nominating state of Iowa on Instagram, YouTube and Hulu.
The campaign also used the video in a fundraising pitch on
Thursday, asking supporters to help turn the online ad into a TV
spot.
"TV ads are expensive. We want to raise $150 000 today,"
read an email from the campaign.
The Twitter spot was conceived and produced in-house, the
Biden campaign said. "When (Biden) saw the painful reception
that Trump received from world leaders representing countries
that have traditionally been strong American allies, it struck a
chord and he felt the need to speak out," a Biden aide said.
The Trump campaign condemned it.
"As the president has said, Joe Biden claims that foreign
leaders have told him they want him to win the election. Of
course they do, they want to keep ripping off the United States
like they did before Trump became president," campaign spokesman
Tim Murtaugh said.
Biden's campaign was endorsed on Thursday by John Kerry, the
former US senator and 2004 Democratic presidential nominee.
Kerry was also secretary of state under Democratic President
Barack Obama, whom Biden served as vice president.
"I've never before seen the world more in need of someone
who on day one can begin the incredibly hard work of putting
back together the world Donald Trump has smashed apart," Kerry
said in a statement, crediting Biden's help on fighting Islamic
State and striking a deal on Iran's nuclear program.
Kerry will join Biden on the campaign trail on Friday in
Iowa and on Sunday in New Hampshire. The states will be the
first to vote on a Democratic nominee next February, and Kerry
won both states in the 2004 primaries.