Vice presidents traditionally serve in the campaign attack dog role, but Biden is showing he’s eager to engage with Trump

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images; Drew Angerer/Getty Images

By Nicole Gaudiano

No more Mr. Nice Guy.

President Joe Biden is out swinging against former President Donald Trump, denouncing the likely GOP presidential nominee as a threat to democracy who was derelict in his duty to stop the January 6 insurrection and who should accept being “a loser.”

His emergence as an attack dog in early 2024 events, lambasting Trump after years when he wouldn’t mention the former president by name, is a new look for Biden – one that’s helping him with Democrats who are worried about the stakes of the election and Biden’s prospects in a race that’s uncomfortably tight in polling matchups with Trump.

In the 24 hours after he condemned Trump on Friday for his actions around the January 6, 2021 insurrection, Biden’s campaign raked in $1 million. His aggressive attacks against Trump only sharpened today in South Carolina, where he pushed back against the “big lie” that Trump won the 2020 election.

In America, Biden said, “losers are taught to concede when they lose. He’s a loser.”

Biden going tit for tat with Trump is not without risks, given that he was elected in 2020 as a stabilizing force during a tumultuous period in American history. If he slips into the mud with Trump too often, there’s a danger he could turn off undecided American voters.

Traditionally, vice presidents have served as the presidential campaign attack dog, the one whose speeches are focused on taking down the opponent. And Vice President Kamala Harris certainly isn’t holding back against Trump. But Biden, who once talked of wanting to “beat the hell out of” Trump, also appears eager to engage.

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His campaign says that will continue as he and Harris lay out the stakes of the election.

“Donald Trump poses a direct threat to our democracy and our fundamental freedoms,” said Seth Schuster, a campaign spokesman. “While he is focused on dividing our country, restricting the right to vote, and ripping away women’s reproductive rights, President Biden and Vice President Harris remain focused on safeguarding our democracy and protecting the rights and freedoms of every American. As the President and Vice President continue to travel our nation, they will consistently make the case directly to the American people about the dire stakes of this election.”

A Trump spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.

Biden’s forceful 2024 posture comes as Democrats are increasingly concerned about the prospect of losing to Trump. They say Biden needs to show that electing Trump would be disastrous for the country.

“The president needed to come out swinging not only to raise the stakes, but to show Democrats that he's fully engaged and understands the threat that Trump represents,” said Brad Bannon, a Democratic pollster and consultant.

There’s room for both Biden and Harris to play an aggressive role in this campaign, Democrats say. And for Biden, taking a passionate stance could help him with voters who are worried that the 81-year-old president is too old to serve.

“That’s one of the things they could do to show he is vigorous and he can make the case,” said a former aide to House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, who declined to be named.

Bannon said Biden seemed to “have new life in him” when he spoke on Friday in Pennsylvania about Trump’s actions around January 6, attacking the way Trump supported the insurrection and calling him the “election denier in chief.”

“And that’s very important because, let’s face it, the polls are pretty clear,” Bannon said. “He looks old and tired when he's passive, but I think joining the attack revitalizes him and speaks to a concern that American voters have about his age.”

Presidential candidates, in the past, have tried to stay above the fray and focus on presenting the positive message about why they should be elected, leaving the “dirty work” to their vice president, said Christopher Devine, a University of Dayton associate professor of political science and author of “Do Running Mates Matter?” As vice president, Biden made a more aggressive case against opponents while former President Obama focused on his message.

“The reality in this race is that running against Donald Trump doesn't really allow for that,” he said. “Donald Trump is his own attack dog. That's his brand, is to be aggressive and take it to the opponents, and really, it would be hard to outdo him in that regard.”

Biden is adapting to the reality that he can’t stay above the fray, either, if he’s running against Trump, he said.

“It's fair to say that he is taking on more of an attack dog role, this time around, more so than in 2020,” he said “And I think it's probably understandable as a reaction to Trump's escalating rhetoric and even just some of the events that intervened.”

The old rule that the vice president plays the attack dog is one of the many norms in American politics that changed with Trump, Bannon said.

“Trump is a significant threat to American democracy,” he said. “I think the president directly countering Trump is an appropriate response to an emergency.”

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Biden the Attack Dog: President Goes All in Fighting Like Trump