‘Wild’ and ‘dangerous’ Trump upstages ‘elderly’ Biden…

With help from Eli Okun, Garrett Ross and Bethany Irvine

Yesterday, we laid out the case many prominent Democrats and JOE BIDEN-supporting editorialists are making for the president to exit his “cocoon” and start doing more public events that reassure voters about his age and abilities.

The flip side of this argument, which we heard from some Biden supporters and aides this weekend, is that focusing on the president at all is contrary to the campaign’s core strategy.

Biden 2024 will be a billion-plus dollar operation to warn voters about the perils of a DONALD TRUMP return to the White House. As one of Biden’s congressional allies told Playbook yesterday, riffing on a familiar Biden line, “Biden will never be the almighty, so everything has to be focussed on the alternative — because Trump’s faults are far worse.”

Right on cue, on Saturday evening Trump spoke at a rally in Conway, South Carolina, and made a number of statements that the Biden campaign seized on.

Trump described participants in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol who broke the law as “hostages” who “love our country” and are now “unfairly imprisoned.” He took credit for legislation signed into law by BARACK OBAMA. He defended his 2023 statement calling autocratic Chinese President XI JINPING “a brilliant man” by noting Xi “controls 1.4 billion people with an iron fist. I’d say he’s smart.” He mocked NIKKI HALEY’s husband, Maj. MICHAEL HALEY, who is serving an active duty deployment in the Horn of Africa for the South Carolina Army National Guard: “What happened to her husband? Where is he? He’s gone.”

Michael responded to Trump with a meme: “The difference between humans and animals? Animals would never allow the dumbest ones to lead the pack.”

But the most newsworthy comments from Trump were about NATO.

Last month, POLITICO reported that during a private meeting in 2020, Trump told European Commission President URSULA VON DER LEYEN, “You need to understand that if Europe is under attack we will never come to help you and to support you.”

Last night, recounting a conversation with an unnamed “president,” Trump confirmed that was, indeed, his view. But he added a shocking new twist.

“No, I would not protect you,” Trump said he told the European leader. “In fact, I would encourage [Russia] to do whatever the hell they want. You gotta pay.”

The version of the clip posted on X by the Biden campaign has over 16 million views this morning.

Aside from the obvious national security implications, there are potential political implications to Trump’s comment. It’s worth noting that the NATO member countries most concerned about future Russian aggression — Poland, Finland, and the Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia — also happen to be well represented in the three pivotal swing states of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

Just for fun, we dug into the numbers this morning:

Michigan

• 2020 margin of victory for Biden: 2.78 percentage points, 154,181 votes
• Polish, Finnish or Baltic population: Approximately 900,000

Pennsylvania

• 2020 margin of victory for Biden: 1.18 percentage points, 82,166 votes
• Polish, Finnish or Baltic population: Approximately 800,000

Wisconsin

• 2020 margin of victory for Biden: 0.63 percentage points, 20,682 votes
• Polish, Finnish or Baltic population: Approximately 500,000

As Democrats continue to freak out about the Hur report this weekend, the Biden campaign is trying to focus its allies on Trump’s most incendiary rally comments.

In a note to surrogates yesterday that was obtained by Playbook, the campaign wrote, “Donald Trump is constantly confused, droning on about gibberish, lying about consequential and inconsequential things, and generally a walking dumpster fire living in an alternate reality where he wasn’t a massive loser in 2020 and didn’t try to drive our country into the ground as president.”

The memo argued that Trump’s outrages “happen so much, they hardly get covered” because “political reporters have become numb to Trump’s wild gaffes and dangerous rhetoric.” The campaign compiled a list of Trump’s greatest hits from recent weeks that it wants Dems to focus on rather than discussing Hur’s diagnosis of Biden:

“In a rant last month, Donald Trump confused Nikki Haley with NANCY PELOSI …. Trump claimed he beat President Obama in 2016 …. Trump said [autocratic Hungarian PM] VIKTOR ORBAN Was “The Leader Of Turkey.” … Trump also said Hungary borders both Ukraine and Russia …. Trump claimed That Mar-A-Lago Was “The Most Expensive House, Probably, In The World.” … While in Iowa, Trump gave a hearty welcome to the crowd in Sioux Falls. Sioux Falls is not in Iowa … Trump expressed fears about a potential World War II.”

Not every Democratic strategist is convinced that a Trump-is-bad strategy is enough for Biden. Look no further than former BILL CLINTON adviser DOUG SOSNIK, who argues today in the NYT that “Biden can’t count on Trump’s unpopularity anymore.”

Pointing to the 1980 presidential election, Sosnik makes the case that “dissatisfaction with one candidate isn’t enough to seal his fate if the opponent can’t meet voters’ threshold for acceptability.” (In this analogy, Trump is JIMMY CARTER and Biden is RONALD REAGAN.)

Biden “needs to do more than simply attack” Trump, Sosnik argues. “At this point Mr. Biden’s biggest challenge is not Mr. Trump but himself. Can he convince the voters, as Mr. Reagan did, that he is up to the job of being president at an age when most people have retired?”

More:

— “NATO Leader Blasts Trump’s Suggestion He Would Encourage Russian Invasion of U.S. Allies,” by WSJ’s Annie Linskey, Aaron Zitner and Alex Leary: “‘NATO remains ready and able to defend all allies,’ [NATO Secretary-General JENS] STOLTENBERG said. ‘Any suggestion that allies will not defend each other undermines all of our security, including that of the U.S., and puts American and European soldiers at increased risk. I expect that regardless of who wins the presidential election the U.S. will remain a strong and committed NATO ally.’”

— “What Biden Needs to Do to Reassure the Public,” via POLITICO Mag: “We asked political strategists from both parties on how the president should confront the most dangerous threat to his reelection.”

— “Other 80-Somethings Have Thoughts About Age and the Presidency,” by NYT’s Jack Healy, Julie Bosman, Audra D. S. Burch and Jenna Russell: “President Biden’s age has once again become a talking point in national politics. Many older Americans agree that it’s an issue; others feel it’s insulting.”

It’s Super Bowl Sunday. Kickoff time is 6:30 p.m. Thanks for reading Playbook. Drop us a line: Rachael Bade, Eugene Daniels, Ryan Lizza.

CATNIP FOR MEDIA TYPES — “The Washington Post Has a New Publisher. Here’s Some Unsolicited Advice,” by Jack Shafer: “14 strategies from news industry experts for new publisher Will Lewis.”

SUNDAY BEST …

— Sen. CHRIS COONS (D-Del.) on Biden’s recent gaffes, on ABC’s “This Week”: “Here’s what matters: not the occasional small gaffe. He had a 12-minute press conference where he was focused, engaged, purposeful, and all you’re focused on is that one minute at the end. That’s not what distinguishes him from his opponent.”

— Israeli PM BENJAMIN NETANYAHU on Biden’s mental acuity, on “This Week”: “I’ve had more than a dozen phone conversations, extended phone conversations with President Biden. He also came on a visit to Israel during wartime, which was a historic first, and I found him very clear and very focused. We managed to agree on the war aims and on many things. Sometimes we had disagreements, but they weren’t borne of a lack of understanding on his part or on my part.”

— NIKKI HALEY on Biden and Trump, on CBS’ “Face the Nation”: “We know what Donald Trump is. You could watch that whole rally yesterday, and it’ll tell you all kinds of things. But the thing is, do you want it again? We know what Joe Biden is. You can see the press conference, you can look at the special investigation that says he’s diminished. But do you want it again?”

— Sen. MARCO RUBIO (R-Fla.) on Trump’s NATO comments, on CNN’s “State of the Union”: “Virtually every American president at some point in some way has complained about other countries in NATO not doing enough. Trump’s just the first one to express it in these terms. But I have zero concern, because he’s been president before. I know exactly what he has done and will do with the NATO alliance. But there has to be an alliance.”

On Trump’s comments about Nikki Haley’s husband: “It’s just part of these campaign cycles, unfortunately. People don’t like it. They’re turned off by it, whatever it may be. But at the end of the day, I think one of the things I’m not going to do any longer is, like, respond to every comment Donald Trump makes and say, ‘Oh, you still support him?’ I do.”

— DHS Secretary ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS on the special counsel’s summation of Biden, on NBC’s “Meet the Press”: “The special counsel … made a conclusion that there is no case — case closed — then made gratuitous, unnecessary and inaccurate personal remarks, and those are improper. The most difficult part about a meeting with President Biden is preparing for it, because he is sharp, intensely probing and detail oriented and focused.”

On whether he bears responsibility for the crisis at the border: “It certainly is a crisis, and, well, we don’t bear responsibility for a broken system. And we’re doing a tremendous amount within that broken system. But fundamentally, fundamentally, Congress is the only one who can fix it.”

— Biden reelection campaign co-chair MITCH LANDRIEU on the special counsel’s report, on “Meet the Press”: “In all the depositions that President Trump has taken in those cases, it says he doesn’t remember or doesn’t know over 1,000 times. So they’re swooning over whether or not the president remembered the year that his son died and therefore is not fit to be president — it’s just really sad and below the belt and unnecessary.”

On whether Biden skipping the Super Bowl interview was a mistake: “I think people really want to watch the Super Bowl tonight and think about football. They don’t want to hear from a politician. So I think he made the right choice for himself at this time.”

TOP-EDS: A roundup of the week’s must-read opinion pieces.

• “If SCOTUS Won’t Enforce the 14th Amendment, We Should Worry How They’ll Handle the 22nd,” by Ian Bassin for Lawfare
• “What Biden’s Critics Get Wrong About His Gaffes,” by Yair Rosenberg for The Atlantic
• “Can the Media Get Trump Coverage Right?” by Peggy Noonan for WSJ
• “The real wolf menacing the news business? AI,” by Jim Albrecht for WaPo
• “Iran May Be the 2024 Election Spoiler,” by William McGurn for WSJ
• “Biden Needs More Than Barbershops and Churches to Win Black Voters,” by Nia-Malika Henderson for Bloomberg
• “Credit Bidenomics for Rising US Wages,” by Arindrajit Dube for Project Syndicate
• “We Americans Neglect Our Children,” by Nicholas Kristof for NYT
• “The Messenger and bad media owners,” by Eric Wemple for WaPo
• “What the Colorado Oral Argument Missed,” by Ned Foley for The Atlantic
• “If You Think World War III Is Unimaginable, Read This,” by Niall Ferguson for Bloomberg

At the White House

Biden and first lady JILL BIDEN will leave New Castle, Delaware, and return to the White House.

VP KAMALA HARRIS will receive briefings and have internal staff meetings.

9 THINGS FOR YOUR RADAR

1. AND ANOTHER ONE GONE: Rep. MIKE GALLAGHER (R-Wis.) became the latest member to head for the exits, announcing that he will retire at the end of his term this year, marking a “blow to the establishment wing of the Republican party, which had hoped he would have a bigger future in politics,” WSJ’s Siobhan Hughes reports. Gallagher, who chaired the China select committee in the House, “cast the decision as personal, saying that he had always planned to treat his service in Congress as ‘a deployment, not a career.’”

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel describes Gallagher’s 8th District seat as “safely Republican,” noting that “Republicans have about a 16-point edge in the largely rural 8th District, and Gallagher had won each reelection handily, by no fewer than 25 points,” per Lawrence Andrea. While no current challengers for the seat have come forward, Trump-aligned GOP consultant ALEX BRUESEWITZ has expressed interest.

2. GAMING OUT THE GARDEN STATE: The New Jersey Senate race was flipped on its head yesterday in the Monmouth County Democratic convention, where Rep. ANDY KIM thumped New Jersey first lady TAMMY MURPHY, who had previously been viewed as the frontrunner in the contest. “Kim won the contest in a blowout, winning 56.8 percent of the vote. Murphy won 38.8 percent while another candidate, progressive labor activist PATRICIA CAMPOS-MEDINA, won 4.2 percent,” our colleague Daniel Han reports from Long Branch, New Jersey.

“The victory has both practical and symbolic purposes. It shows that Kim’s candidacy has momentum and that he can foster support from rank-and-file Democrats, which will be critical to counter Murphy’s institutional support from Democratic party leaders across the state. While on the stump before the convention vote, Kim received raucous applause compared to tepid cheers for Murphy. It also means that Kim will get the so-called county line in Monmouth — a unique feature of New Jersey’s primary ballot.”

3. THE AGE-OLD PROBLEM: “Overwhelming majority of Americans think Biden is too old for another term,” by ABC’s Meredith Deliso: “According to the poll, conducted using Ipsos’ Knowledge Panel, 86% of Americans think Biden, 81, is too old to serve another term as president. That figure includes 59% of Americans who think both he and former President Donald Trump, the Republican front-runner, are too old and 27% who think only Biden is too old.”

4. MIDDLE EAST LATEST: Biden and his top administration officials say they are “closer to a breach with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu than at any time since the Gaza War began, no longer viewing him as a productive partner who can be influenced even in private,” WaPo’s Yasmeen Abutaleb, John Hudson and Tyler Pager report. While the White House has so far held firm on providing aid to Israel, “some of Biden’s aides argue that criticizing Netanyahu would allow him to distance himself from an unpopular leader and his scorched-earth policies while reiterating his long-standing support for Israel itself.”

Adding to the frustrations for the U.S., Netanyahu said his government “is preparing plans to evacuate hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from the southern Gaza city of Rafah so that Israeli forces can expand their campaign against Hamas there, despite warnings by the U.S. and United Nations of the potential cost in civilian lives and suffering,” WSJ’s Chao Deng and Carrie Keller-Lynn report from Tel Aviv.

Related reads: “Israeli military operation in Rafah ‘cannot proceed,’ U.S. ambassador to the U.N. says,” by NPR’s Michele Kelemen, Tinbete Ermyas and Michael Levitt … “Saudi Arabia warns Israel of ‘very serious repercussions’ for storming Rafah,” by CNN’s Mitchell McCluskey … “Egypt threatens to suspend key peace treaty if Israel pushes into Rafah on its border, officials say,” by AP’s Najib Jobain and Samy Magdy

5. THE RETRIBUTION TOUR: The House Republicans who took down KEVIN McCARTHY as speaker are finding themselves at odds with a party establishment that is still reeling from the drama that shook up the ranks, with tangible repercussions already for Reps. NANCY MACE (R-S.C.), BOB GOOD (R-Va.) and MATT ROSENDALE (R-Mont.). “A well-connected GOP outside spending group is planning to play in the races against Good and Mace, while McCarthy himself is widely expected to get involved as well,” CNN’s Melanie Zanona and Manu Raju report.

“Meanwhile, the Main Street Caucus and Republican Governance Group, two center-right-leaning groups on Capitol Hill, have both quietly dropped Mace from their ranks, multiple sources told CNN. Neither move was publicized, but sources say frustration with the congresswoman had been brewing for months leading up to her McCarthy vote.” But it’s not just those three feeling the effects. Reps. TIM BURCHETT (R-Tenn.) and ANDY BIGGS (R-Ariz.) told CNN that they are finding donors who no longer want to back them after their votes to sink McCarthy.

6. THE POLICY PRESS: Absent a congressionally approved border deal, Democrats are taking their push to the polls, our colleagues Ally Mutnick and Burgess Everett report. “In both chambers, Democrats are vowing to bring the charge to TV ads this fall. And party strategists are already shopping around polling, testing different messages on the issue. Democrats are also aggressively pitching local news outlets on Republicans’ about-face. Even the Biden administration has already started needling Republicans on it. The working message: Republicans are flip-flopping on an issue of national security, opposing their own painstakingly drafted solution because former President Donald Trump wants chaos at the border.”

7. MAKING ROOM FOR GROWTH: “Trump makes peace with Club for Growth,” by Alex Isenstadt: “After being at war with each other for the past year, Trump and Club for Growth President DAVID McINTOSH met for dinner Wednesday evening at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, according to two people with knowledge of the sit-down. McIntosh [also flew with] Trump on Saturday to South Carolina, where the former president is campaigning ahead of the state’s Feb. 24 Republican primary. The rapprochement represents the latest turn in the ongoing, hot-cold relationship between Trump and the conservative organization.”

8. WAR IN UKRAINE: “Russia Is Using Elon Musk’s Starlink at the Front Line, Ukraine Says,” by WSJ’s Ian Lovett: “Russian forces are using SpaceX’s satellite internet system near the front line in occupied parts of Ukraine, Kyiv’s military intelligence agency said, potentially undercutting a major battlefield advantage for Ukraine’s army. Access to the system, known as Starlink, has enabled front-line Ukrainian forces to communicate via secure internet chat apps, allowing them to stay in contact without relying on cell or radio signals, which are easier to intercept.”

9. IS NOTHING SACRED?: “Once an Escape, Sports Talk Embraces Politics,” by NYT’s Ken Bensinger and Kellen Browning: “For the most part, this class of sports commentators largely lives on the right side of the political spectrum, where they have become loud and influential voices reaching an audience that often tunes out traditional coverage of politics. (Analysts suggest audience demographics explain at least part of the rightward tilt of these shows. Sports talk listeners skew male, just like Republican voters.)”

Nalin Haley — Nikki Haley’s son — went biblical on Tim Scott.

Mike Gallaghers everywhere are calling it quits.

SPOTTED: Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) at the Eden Center yesterday to celebrate the Lunar New Year. Pic

SPOTTED: David Rubenstein having lunch yesterday at the Beach Club at the Breakers in Palm Beach, where he’s visiting family.

OUT AND ABOUT — SPOTTED last night at Juleanna Glover’s house for a party celebrating Alex Ward’s debut book, “The Internationalists: The Fight to Restore American Foreign Policy After Trump” ($32): Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Christine Hilt, Andrew Bates and Megan Apper, Olivia Nuzzi, Kalee Kreider, Ben Haas, Sarah Weinstein, Usha Sahay, John Hudson, Evelyn Farkas, Andrew Desiderio, John Rizzo, Paul Myler, Natalie Boyse, Adam Green, Julie Bloom, Rachel Rizzo, Robbie Gramer, Adam Hodge, Jack Detsch, Heidi Vogt, Dave Brown, Nahal Toosi, Josh Gerstein, Heidi Przybyla, Lara Seligman, Phelim Kine, Joe Gould, Connor O’Brien, Matt Berg, Luiza and Charlie Savage, John Sakellariadis, Maggie Miller and Eric Bazail-Eimil.

ENGAGED — Tom Del Beccaro, a lawyer and conservative commentator and former chair of the California GOP, and Nicole Ginis, a booking producer at Newsmax, recently got engaged on a sunset mountain hike at Tourne Park in Mountain Lakes, New Jersey, with a view of Manhattan in the distance. The couple met in the political world since Nicole was a former chief of staff to a New Jersey assemblyman and their first date was at the NYC premiere of the film “Sweetwater,” in which Tom made his acting debut. Pic

WEDDING — Ellie Warner, deputy director of the White House Visitors Office, and Devin Urness, an associate at Hogan Lovells, got married yesterday afternoon at St. John’s Episcopal Church. The two met through Devin’s college friends in D.C. SPOTTED at the reception at Autoshop: Terry McAuliffe, Dorothy McAuliffe, Sally McAuliffe, Bob Jones, Evan Hollander and Eli Yokley, Steve and Randy Toll, Jenny Nadicksbernd, Chris Bien, Katherine Sears, Michael Halle, David Jones, Hani and Cheryl Masri, Taylor Hennings, Mary Tabaie, Christian Radden, Jake Rubenstein, Caroline Corl Rubenstein, Opal Vadhan, Katy Ann Searcy, Austin Brown, Katie Hendrickson and Lauren Weber. Pic … Another pic

HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) … Hawaii Gov. Josh Green … Sarah Palin (6-0) … Jeb Bush … POLITICO’s Rachel Kosberg and Evan Lehmann … Jimmy Dahman … Matt Bennett … Dan Barry … Alex Conant … James Hewitt … Kyle Buckles … Evan Siegfried … ProPublica’s Stephen Engelberg … Will Smith of Cornerstone Government Affairs … Nicole L’Esperance … Sean McCluskie … Wes Barrett … Brian Kaveney … Andrea Mares . … Hannah Lindow … Emily Kirlin of Tiber Creek Group … Jess Sarmiento … former Rep. Rob Woodall (R-Ga.) … former HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt … Rob Hendin … Alicia Mundy … Steven Roberts … Global Situation Room’s Johanna Maska … Caitlin Mackintosh Schroder … Jamie Logan of the American Cleaning Institute … Mary Henkin … Rick Tyler … Meiying Wu … Alejandro Rosenkranz … Amanda Hamilton … Danielle Strasburger

Send Playbookers tips to [email protected] or text us at 202-556-3307. Playbook couldn’t happen without our editor Mike DeBonis, deputy editor Zack Stanton and Playbook Daily Briefing producer Callan Tansill-Suddath.