Joe Biden (Video screenshot)
The left-leaning news website Axios isn't buying Joe Biden's claim that he's still the "deal-making centrist" he's made himself out to be over his 47-year career in Washington.
That's a key selling point for swing voters, Axios said in an analysis, but "the modern Biden has been pushed left by his party's insurgent progressives."
"Biden has moved to the left to accommodate party activists on crime, climate, education, immigration and health care," Axios said.
His primary challenge is to convince swing voters that "he didn't move too far, too fast."
"The bottom line: Voters are choosing between a composite of Biden that spans 48 years — or the undiluted Trump of the past four," Axios said.
The news site noted that Biden "wants many suburban voters to associate him with his persona as a white, firehouse Democrat — over a more woke 2020 Democratic primary candidate who navigated through his rivals to win his party’s nomination."
Biden has directly addressed President Trump's effort to cast him as a "Trojan Horse" for his party's far left, led by primary opponent Sen. Bernie Sanders and the four freshmen known as the "squad."
"Do I look like a radical socialist with a soft spot for rioters?" Biden asked in an address in Pittsburgh this week.
Axios, founded in 2016 by former Politico executives Jim VandeHei, Mike Allen and Roy Schwartz, is generally regarded as a center-left publication.
'Radical' policies now 'mainstream'
In his speech at the Democratic National Convention, Sanders touted the success of his far-left "revolutionary" movement.
Sanders assured his ardent supporters that some of their once-thought "radical" policies are now deeply embedded in the 2020 platform of the Democratic Party.
"Our campaign ended several months ago, but our movement continues and is getting stronger every day," Sanders said.
Bernie Sanders speaking at the Democratic National Convention on Aug. 17, 2020. (Video screenshot)
"Many of the ideas we fought for, that just a few years ago were considered 'radical,' are now mainstream."
Prior to the airing of Sanders' speech, a video showed former Republican Ohio Gov. John Kasich delivering his remarks while standing at a dirt crossroad in a grassy field.
"I'm sure there are Republicans and independents who couldn't imagine crossing over to support a Democrat," he said. "They fear Joe may turn sharp left and leave them behind. I don't believe that."
Biden, Kasich contended, is "reasonable, faithful, respectful, and you know, no one pushes Joe around."
Screenshot from John Kasich's Democratic National Convention speech Aug. 17, 2020.
President Trump, meanwhile, has challenged the Democrats' and establishment media's characterization of Biden as a principled, committed moderate.
"Biden is just a Trojan Horse for socialism," the president said at a stop on his Midwest plane tour in August, adding "the people around [Biden] are tough."
Republicans point out some of the "radical" ideas that now have become "mainstream" for Democrats were incorporated in the recommendations of the "unity task force" established by Biden and Sanders. The task force, following Sanders' strong run for the nomination, laid out a progressive roadmap for Democrats in July built on the premise "the U.S. economy is rigged against the American people."
It includes free college, universal pre-Kindergarten, a "public option" as a move toward universal health care, a $15 minimum wage and elements of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez' Green New Deal, such as setting a deadline for carbon-free electricity generation.
An estimated $2 trillion of the $10 trillion Biden proposes in new spending, would go to achieving what the presumptive Democratic nominee calls "environmental justice."
Biden has promised to raise taxes to fund the spending.
See John Kasich's speech:
The Democrats' unity agenda effectively would curb the authority of Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and create new incentives for illegal immigration. Illegal aliens, among other benefits, would immediately qualify for taxpayer-funded health care. Asylum laws would be relaxed, essentially allowing anyone to simply make an unsubstantiated claim.
Support for sanctuary cities and late-term abortions are also on the agenda.
"To everyone who supported other candidates in the primary and to those who may have voted for Donald Trump in the last election: The future of our democracy is at stake," Sanders intoned in his DNC speech.
"The future of our economy is at stake. The future of our planet is at stake. We must come together, defeat Donald Trump and elect Joe Biden and Kamala Harris as our next president and vice president."
See Bernie Sanders' DNC speech:
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