President Joe Biden responded to Donald Trump’s resounding victory in the Iowa caucuses by reminding American voters that it will be “you and me vs extreme Maga Republicans.”
Mr Trump was the overwhelming winner on Monday night, receiving 51% of the vote in Iowa and moving closer to capturing the Republican presidential nomination as the primary season began.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis received 21% of the vote, former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley received 19%, and biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy received only 8%, causing him to halt his candidacy and support the winner.
“Looks like Donald Trump has won Iowa. “He’s the clear frontrunner on the other side at this point,” Mr. Biden wrote on X overnight.
“But here’s the thing: this election was always going to be you and I vs radical Maga Republicans. It was true yesterday and will be true tomorrow. “So if you’re with us, chip in now.”
As Mr. Trump delivered a victory speech in which he hailed “a very special night” and promised to “straighten up the problems of the world” if he returned to the White House, a Biden campaign adviser told CNN that the moment was significant because it demonstrated the extent of the former president’s stranglehold over the Republican Party – and that they now expect the GOP to go all-in for Mr. Trump’s candidacy from now on.
Soon after, the Biden campaign sent its first set of fundraising emails in response to the Iowa caucuses results, requesting money from anxious Democrats.
“If Donald Trump is our opponent, we can expect vile attacks, endless lies, and massive spending,” the campaign said in a statement to supporters.
While Mr. Biden’s staff is privately concerned about his failure to disseminate the gospel of his economic triumphs, it has expressed optimism that he will succeed on that theme once the campaign heats up.
This year’s election is increasingly resembling the 2020 battle between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, with the incumbent warning of his twice-impeached predecessor’s authoritarian instincts and scandalous history, while the challenger paints a dystopian picture of a corrupt America in decline that only he can save.
On the financial front, Mr. Biden, the Democratic National Committee, and their joint fundraising committees for 2024 announced on Monday that they raised more than $97 million in the final three months of last year.
The claimed estimates put Mr. Biden ahead of the $68 million raised by Barack Obama’s campaign at the same point in 2011, but far short of the $154 million raised for Mr Trump’s re-election campaign in 2020.