President Biden’s reelection campaign Tuesday defended the decision to continue with plans to virtually nominate the president ahead of the convention next month.
The Democratic National Committee (DNC) was set to hold a virtual roll call to ensure Biden is on the ballot in all 50 states after Democrats were notified earlier this year that the timing of their convention didn’t meet an Ohio deadline, which was Aug. 7, to certify the party’s presidential nominee before the Aug. 19 convention.
But, on June 2, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) signed legislation to extend the deadline to Aug. 31. And, since then, Biden’s debate performance has caused concerns in among Democrats over if he should remain at the top of the ticket.
When questioned on why a virtual roll call is still necessary ahead of the convention, Biden principal deputy campaign manager Quentin Fulks told reporters in Milwaukee that Ohio Republicans “decided to play games.”
“We have an obligation to make sure, as we have said, to stand by free and fair elections and make sure that the process runs as smoothly as possible,” he said. “It is our obligation as a campaign to make sure that President Biden is on the ballot, as well as Donald Trump, for anybody who is trying to play those games.”
Reporters pushed back, accusing him of dodging the question about why they are moving forward with a virtual roll call.
“I didn’t dodge the question,” Fulks said. “It’s the fact that they solved it with ‘a legislative fix,’” he said, putting up air quotes with his hands.
“We moved forward, we instituted this before they had a fix, and we’re going to continue on that path because we’re not going to leave it up to them to change the rules again,” he added.
The Ohio secretary of state’s office responded to the Biden campaign by accusing democrats of using the Buckeye State as a scapegoat.
“The issue is resolved in Ohio, and Democratic proxies know that and should stop trying to scapegoat Ohio for their own party disfunction,” the office said in a statement, Semafor reported.
Biden has been eyeing a campaign reset after the assassination attempt on former President Trump this week, hoping to pivot attention away from his own troubled reelection effort. About 20 Democrats had come out in public to call for Biden to withdraw from the race, but since Saturday’s shooting of the Republican candidate, no further such calls have been made.
Updated at 11:26 a.m. ET