There are still 17 months left until the general election but President Donald Trump and his campaign are already previewing a potential face-off with one candidate in particular: former Vice President Joe Biden.Of the roughly 20 Democrats in the race, Trump’s 2020 team has spent the most effort and resources so far going after the current front-runner in the polls. From derisive tweets and fundraising appeals to surrogates on the airwaves and state-specific lines of attack, “SleepyCreepy Joe” has become the president’s clearest target yet as he seeks a second term.
Biden, for his part, has wasted no time punching back. In his video announcing his candidacy, the three-time presidential hopeful never said his own name but did invoke Trump’s, warning that “if we give Donald Trump eight years in the White House he will forever and fundamentally alter the character of this nation.”
But underneath the public sparring between the two men are signs that their campaign structures are also very much focused on each other.
Joe Biden holds kickoff campaign rally in PhiladelphiaMay 19, 201901:40And one state in particular has provided the starkest blueprint for how the two campaigns plan to attack: Pennsylvania, where Trump and Biden scheduled large-scale rallies 48 hours apart — Biden on Saturday in Philadelphia, and Trump on Monday in northeast Mountoursville.