‘What the hell was he talking about?’ Joe Biden says of Trump’s speech

US President Joe Biden on Friday rebutted his election opponent Donald Trump’s speech at the Republican National Convention (RCC) on Thursday night, lamenting that he was “stuck at home with Covid” while a spokesman reiterated his “eagerness to get back on the campaign trail.”

Biden, apparently ignoring pressure from the Democratic Party to reconsider his bid for a second term, wrote on his X account: “I’m stuck at home with Covid so I had the particular bad luck of watching Donald Trump’s speech at the RNC. What the hell was he talking about?”

He followed a thread in which he responded to the Republican candidate’s statements, in some cases with more sarcasm than political content, such as “Donald, Hannibal Lecter is not real,” and repeatedly pointing to “his 2025 project,” a program developed by ultraconservative groups from which Trump has tried to distance himself.

The Democratic candidate cited Trump’s presidency (2017-2021) to warn that, contrary to what he said on Thursday, he will cut Social Security and Medicare, raise taxes on the middle class, worsen debt and inflation or put immigrants “in massive detention camps.”

Shortly before those messages, his campaign spokesman, Kevin Munoz, sent an email to the media entitled “one week, two very different views,” in which he lashed out at the “anonymous sources” who have leaked doubts in the Democratic Party about Biden’s ability to win the election.

After highlighting the Biden-Harris campaign events and the support they have garnered this week, Munoz noted that next week both have “more than twenty press events” and reiterated: “As we have said before, President Biden is looking forward to returning to the campaign trail as soon as he can.”

Biden is in isolation at his home in Delaware after testing positive for Covid-19 with mild symptoms on Wednesday and has seen “significant” improvement, according to his doctor.

Thirteen Democratic lawmakers expressed their dissatisfaction with Biden’s candidacy on Friday, a further sign that much of the party is running out of patience for him to “pass the baton,” as they ask him to do, after losing the support of several Democratic leaders, important donors and with the polls against him.

With these 13 Democrats, the number of members of Congress calling for Biden’s removal rises to 38, which constitutes more than 14% of the party’s caucus members in both chambers. Of the 38 leading the revolt, 34 are representatives of the Lower House and 4 are senators.