During ABC News Prime’s coverage of President Joe Biden’s speech on Thursday, ABC News Senior White House Correspondent Mary Bruce stated that Biden’s speech was an attempt to turn the 2022 midterm elections into a referendum on former President Donald Trump instead of a referendum on President Biden himself and noted that Biden “didn’t spend as much time talking about those kitchen table issues that are at the core of so many of the races across the country” and that are “top-of-mind for voters when they head to cast their ballot in November.”
Bruce said, “It’s interesting because midterms so often are a referendum on the current President. Biden is trying to make this a referendum, in many ways, on the former President.”
She added, “And it did stick out to me what he didn’t talk about as much. He didn’t spend as much time talking about those kitchen table issues that are at the core of so many of the races across the country. I was out here all day, in the critical state of Pennsylvania, talking to a lot of voters, and one in particular stood out to me. He said, yes, the battle for the soul of democracy, that’s fine and good. But he wants to hear the President talk about the economy. He wants to hear the President talk about the rising prices he feels at the gas station and in the grocery store. So, it will be interesting to see over the weeks to come whether we see more of the Joe Biden we saw tonight speaking in these big, sweeping terms or whether he hear him talk more about those issues that are top-of-mind for voters when they head to cast their ballot in November.”
Later, Bruce mentioned House Minority Leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s (R-CA) prebuttal speech where McCarthy blamed “the President for the state of the economy because while Joe Biden and Democrats want to make this about Donald Trump, Republicans are trying to make this about the issues and trying to get past, in many ways, the former President and much of the legal drama that he is currently ensnared in.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett