President Biden will take a trip to Chicago before heading to Philadelphia on Saturday afternoon as he continues his sweep through the nation to campaign for Democrats ahead of Tuesday's midterm election, the White House said.
"Tomorrow evening, the president will travel on to Chicago, Illinois, through Saturday morning before heading to Philadelphia on Saturday afternoon for a political rally with former President Barack Obama and other officials," White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Thursday afternoon on Air Force One.
But the news that Biden would stop in deep-blue Chicago provoked a question from a reporter about why the president is traveling to areas Democrats should have no problem winning. The president is traveling to San Diego, Thursday, where he will campaign for Democrats in places he won decisively in the 2020 election.
"Broadly, with New Mexico, Chicago, California, he's spending a lot of time in very blue places in these last days before the midterms... why is the president spending so much time in blue strongholds?" the reporter asked.
Jean-Pierre declined to weigh in "on the electoral process," but noted that the president just returned from a campaign event for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Charlie Crist and Senate hopeful Rep. Val Demings, D-Fla., in Florida, and is headed to the battleground state of New Mexico today.
"He has been traveling all across the country, he has been talking to the American people about the choice that's in front of them, a stark choice, and we'll continue to do that," Jean-Pierre said.
"He believes it is an important conversation, a real conversation that he believes is important to have with the American people," she added. "And his conversations and remarks have been that his plan and the congressional Democrats' plan is lower costs for the American people, lower health care, including lowering health care prescription drugs, energy costs, and to create manufacturing jobs and bring investment to our shores."
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She accused Republicans of wanting to make cuts to Medicare and Social Security, as well as enact a national abortion ban and block forgiveness of federal student loan debt, repeating familiar attacks on GOP candidates voters have heard ad nauseam.
Election forecasters are increasingly favoring Republicans to retake the House of Representatives. The Cook Political Report this week moved seats in California's 9th, 47th and 26th Congressional Districts toward the Republican column, as well as Illinois' 6th and 14th Congressional Districts, and New Jersey's 3rd Congressional District.
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Fox News' Power Rankings currently project Republicans to win at least a 19-seat majority in the House and list four Senate races in Arizona, Pennsylvania, Georgia and Nevada as "toss-ups" that will determine control of that chamber.
