The TAKE with Rick Klein
It’s not a full-scale revolt — and a light presidential travel schedule has kept most Democrats from having to make the show-up-or-don’t choice posed by a visit from Joe Biden in the weeks before the midterms.
But with debate season in full swing, Democrats in make-or-break races are looking for ways to put daylight between themselves and Biden’s White House — in a way most Republicans running this year are not seeking distance from former President Donald Trump.
On Friday, at the first and likely only Arizona Senate debate of the year, Sen. Mark Kelly called the situation at the southern border “a mess” and touted areas where he has broken with Biden on gas prices and inflation.
“When Democrats are wrong, like on the border, I call them out on it,” Kelly said, per ABC News’ Libby Cathey.
That same night, in North Carolina, Democratic Senate candidate Cheri Beasley said Biden and members of Congress “could work a whole lot harder” to address rising prices. She also refused to say if she would campaign alongside the president in the state.
“It’s wrong to align me with anybody unless I specifically say what my positions are,” Beasley said, ABC’s Hannah Demissie reported.
As for their GOP opponents, Blake Masters, who is running against Kelly in Arizona with Trump’s backing, decried what he called the “Joe Biden-Mark Kelly economy.” Rep. Ted Budd, the Trump-backed Republican running for Senate in North Carolina, said flatly, “Joe Biden is on the ballot on Nov. 8, and he goes by the name this year of Cheri Beasley.”
It’s a trend that’s likely to continue this week. The first Senate debates in their respective states are on tap Monday in Ohio and Friday in Georgia, with a second Senate debate in Wisconsin scheduled for Thursday.
The RUNDOWN with Alisa Wiersema
The Republican path to seeing midterm success could hinge on Arizona and Nevada, as evidenced by former President Trump’s swing across the two Western states over the weekend.
During a rally in Minden, Nevada, on Saturday, Trump echoed his party’s campaign season rhetoric by tearing into Democrats over high inflation and claiming an “invasion” is happening at the southern border. Meanwhile, Republican Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville also joined the event and made headlines over his claims that Democrats are “pro-crime” and that “they want reparation because they think the people that do the crime are owed that!”
Although Trump was joined on stage by two of the Nevada Republicans he endorsed — gubernatorial candidate Sheriff Joe Lombardo and Senate candidate Adam Laxalt — he also took the opportunity to, yet again, tease his own possible political moves when discussing his past presidential campaigns and adding “we may have to do it again.”
But it remains to be seen how members of his party would respond to a Trump run in 2024 — including at least one of the candidates he currently backs.
A week before rallying in front of supporters with Trump, Lombardo hedged his answer during the only gubernatorial debate of the season when asked if he thought Trump was a great president, ABC’s Abby Cruz reports.
“I wouldn’t say great. I think he was a sound president,” Lombardo said at the time.
Lombardo also diverged from the former president’s false, sweeping allegations of the 2020 election having been rigged against him. When asked if he shared those views a week ago, the Clark County sheriff said, “No, I do not. I think there was a modicum of fraud but not to change the election.”
However, on Saturday, Lombardo shared a different view of the former president while vowing to “bring trust back to the office [of the governor].”
“We’re here to rally the ticket and who’s going to help us today? Who’s going to help us? The greatest president, right? Donald J. Trump,” the Republican said.
Read More: Some Democrats seek debate-season daylight from Biden: The Note