Pennsylvania senator remains silent on Biden’s abilities

SCRANTON, Pennsylvania — Hometown son Sen. Bob Casey Jr. (D-PA) arrived early Monday morning with Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti for a meeting after a roundtable discussion on women’s rights in neighboring Scranton County. Alfalfa.

Casey, the incumbent senator who won three statewide elections starting in 1996 before winning and holding his seat for three consecutive terms, is the son of former Democratic Pennsylvania Gov. Robert Casey. Bob Casey Jr. grew up on North Washington Avenue, the same street where President Joe Biden grew up — a street that the reserved Democrat, as well as Biden, likes to reference.

Bob Casey Jr. and Biden are intrinsically linked to each other, not only by geography and Democratic politics, but also personally.

“Oh, I’m proud of him. I literally lived… my family was raised and I grew up six blocks from the Caseys. And it’s kind of funny. His dad is as much older than me as I am, Bobby… and we’re kind of straddling each other,” Biden said in an interview in January 2007, when Bob Casey Jr. was sworn in. “I joke when I’m in Scranton, which is the reason I left Green Ridge in Scranton, is I knew there was only one Catholic who could do it, and it wasn’t me.”

In December 2020, during an Election Day exchange he made with the president in their shared hometown, Bob Casey Jr. said he asked then-candidate Biden if Biden could greet her mother, Ellen Casey, as they passed her house on the way. at Bob Casey Jr.’s former home, which Biden happily agreed to do.

Bob Casey Jr. said Biden not only greeted the person but got out of the car to chat with his mother from the sidewalk. He then turned to the senator and said, “God only created two perfect women. My mother and Ellen Casey. »

Since Biden’s debate last Thursday against Trump, Governor Josh Shapiro (D-PA) and Senator John Fetterman (D-PA) have firmly admitted two things: Biden had a bad debate and Biden should remain the Democratic nominee. Shapiro and Fetterman had no qualms about Biden’s performance and their support for him. The latter offered a more brazen response than Shapiro’s.

The only statewide elected Democrat who did not offer a debate rating, and who, interestingly, also did not offer his endorsement of Biden, was Bob Casey Jr.

The day after the debate, with Shapiro and Fetterman both in attendance, Bob Casey Jr.’s campaign was contacted to see if the senator had said anything about Biden’s debate.

A campaign official provided a quote from Bob Casey Jr. in response.

“I’m fighting for Pennsylvania against an opponent who sells out workers to enrich himself, who invested in Chinese military companies, and who applauded when Roe v. Wade was canceled,” the senator’s quote read. “Pennsylvanians deserve someone who fights for working families, not billionaires.”

Although Bob Casey Jr.’s statement appeared to be about his opponent, Republican Dave McCormick, and not Biden and the debate, his campaign maintained that it was indeed the senator’s post-debate statement.

JD Prose, journalist at PennLivereported that he also received a statement from Bob Casey Jr. attacking McCormick rather than addressing the debate. Between social media posts and emails from Bob Casey Jr.’s campaign, nothing has been found to address the senator’s assessment of the presidential debate performance.

The senator’s campaign account on X contains posts about public transportation as well as posts between Bob Casey Jr. and Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) arguing about which side of the Delaware River has the best pizza. Other posts show the senator’s visit to Hershey, Pennsylvania, to talk about retiree pensions and a fundraising pitch, a post about the anniversary of the Stonewall riots and a whimsical post about pride.

Paul Sracic, a political science professor at Youngstown State University, said one might expect leaders such as Bob Casey Jr. to run as surrogates for the president.

“There is, however, an obvious reason why Case may be silent,” Sracic said. “We are seeing in the polls the resurgence of split-ticket voting, something that was once common but has become rare. Right now, Casey is doing better than Biden, outpacing him by a wide margin,” he said.

Sracic said the senator, like most Democrats, is in a difficult situation.

“Maybe Casey needs Trump voters to join him in November and he doesn’t want to offend them by defending the indefensible,” he said.

Monday morning, Axios It has been reported that a massive political, public relations and personal campaign is underway to reject calls for Biden to abandon his re-election bid and to rally Democrats to abandon the public debate over the president’s age and future.

Sracic brought up the fact that Bob Casey Jr., throughout his campaign, repeatedly said (before the debate) that Biden was ready to take the job now and if he were re-elected. McCormick released an ad over the weekend titled “Bob Casey Knew,” claiming that the senator, as Biden’s close confidant and friend, hid the president’s impairing abilities and knew all along that Biden was indeed not fit for the job.

“There is a good chance he will lose voters because they will think he lied to them,” Sracic said.

Sracic said Bob Casey Jr. entered debate night with polls showing swing voters embracing Democratic incumbents in Senate races while rejecting Biden.

“In a sense, it’s personal,” he said. “This is part of the slow sorting process that takes place as parties reorganize. Trump changed the Republican Party, stealing working-class voters from Democrats while losing suburban voters, especially women,” he said.

So far, the Senate races in Pennsylvania and Ohio have been symptomatic of this global shift, and Bob Casey Jr. has benefited from his father’s social conservatism and his legacy with working-class voters in Pennsylvania.

On the other hand, remember that turnout in presidential years is very different than in midterm elections. Some Trump voters, in particular, seem to only show up when Trump is on the ballot. Sracic said Bob Casey Jr. needs Trump voters, especially those who are more anti-Biden than pro-Trump, to split their tickets in November.

“A lot of these anti-Biden but not really pro-Trump voters think Biden is not up to the task. Thursday’s debate confirmed this,” he said.

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Sracic said Casey needs to be careful not to sugarcoat Biden’s debate performance to swing voters when they know what they saw.

“That could push them toward the McCormick camp,” he said.