Joe Biden’s campaign manager, Jen O’Malley Dillon, pivoted when asked about criticism of the Democratic presidential nominee’s use of teleprompters during interviews recorded from his home.
“The vice president uses a teleprompter on occasion. You see it [when he’s] giving a speech,” Dillon told Politico Tuesday. “But he is also out there every day, taking questions from reporters.”
Biden engaged with the press “four or five times out on the stump” during his travel last week to New York, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, Dillon said.
“I will put the VP up against Donald Trump and anyone else to make sure that he’s talking truth,” she said.
Another Biden aide, TJ Ducklo, went viral on social media last week when he told Fox News host Bret Baier he was parroting talking points from President Trump’s team after Baier pressed him on the same issue.
Since the coronavirus pandemic forced Biden to campaign mostly from his home in Wilmington, Delaware, Trump’s staff have pounced on any mistakes he’s made during interviews and events while reading from a teleprompter set up in his makeshift basement and porch studios. During a Labor Day town hall with the AFL-CIO Pennsylvania chapter, he even told a staffer to scroll up his script.
Joe Biden is relying on a teleprompter to answer questions: “move it up here,” he tells his staff.
There are long pauses between his words as he waits for the prompter to scroll. pic.twitter.com/zYlMbfd2mA
— Trump War Room – Text TRUMP to 88022 (@TrumpWarRoom) September 7, 2020
During a wide-ranging conversation in which she discussed her plans for the final 49 days until the election, Dillon was also quizzed on Democrats expressing concern about the state of the race against Trump.
“I welcome the bed-wetting, belly aching, whatever you want to call it, because people know what’s at stake,” she said. “It’s going to take all of us, and we are very open to making sure that we’re having real conversations about what we can do as a campaign and how we build on what we need to do.”
Dillon’s comments follow a Washington Post report this month regarding “Operation Rubber Sheets,” which outlined steps Dillon and her colleagues are taking to ease the anxiety felt by some Democrats as polls tighten between Biden and Trump.
