MILWAUKEE (AP) — On the heels of a fourth indictment for Donald Trump, President Joe Biden focused on manufacturing jobs in a speech at a Wisconsin factory — putting his ideas for growth up against his Republican rivals in a bid to win over voters in a key state in next year’s presidential election.
“It’s really kind of basic: we just decided to invest in America again,” Biden said Tuesday. “That’s what it’s all about.”
His arrival in Milwaukee came on the eve of the one-year anniversary of the Inflation Reduction Act, a major piece of economic legislation he signed into law with great ceremony but polls show that most people know little about it or what it does. It also occurred a week before Republicans descend on Milwaukee for the party’s first presidential debate. But as Biden spoke, much of the political world was focused on his predecessor, Trump, who was charged late Monday in Georgia on an alleged scheme to illegally overturn the results of the 2020 election.
Wisconsin is among the handful of critical states where Biden needs to persuade voters that his policies are having a positive impact on their lives by generating roughly $500 billion in corporate investments in factories and other facilities. The president ignored Trump in his speech, but he made the economic case personal by directly challenging the state’s Republican Sen. Ron Johnson, who was just reelected in 2022 and not up again until 2028.
Biden said that his ideas are in opposition to “the conservative Republican view, the so-called MAGA view, which is focused on corporate profits.”
“But you know who believes that?” the president said. “Your significant Senator Ron Johnson. He believes outsourcing manufacturing jobs is a great thing.”
Other Democrats on Tuesday openly compared Biden’s trip to discuss policy with the legal challenges of Trump, the Republican frontrunner trying to oust him in 2024.
“The contrast between Republicans and us is incredible,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., told reporters Tuesday on a conference call.