Biden focuses on abortion at campaign stop in Tampa

Sen. Rick Scott, who is up for reelection in November, called his likely Democratic opponent, former U.S. Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, and Biden “socialists” on a mobile billboard outside of the Biden event, where Mucarsel-Powell also spoke. But those ads also didn’t discuss abortion. Instead, they focused on immigration — specifically, the death of Laken Riley, a Georgia nursing student who was killed, prosecutors say, by an immigrant who was in the country illegally.

The Trump campaign also criticized Biden ahead of his visit on the border and the economy.

“Joe Biden and the Democrats are radically out of touch with the majority of Americans in their support for abortion up until birth,” Trump spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said in a statement Monday. (Biden’s team says he supports abortion until the point of fetal viability.) “Women want a President who will secure our nation’s borders, remove violent criminals from our neighborhoods, and build an economy that helps hardworking families thrive.”

Biden also faced criticism from the left on Tuesday. Demonstrators critical of the United States’ support for Israel in its war with Hamas gathered outside the Tampa event. Ahead of Biden’s visit, at least one group was calling Biden “Genocide Joe” in a social media post.

Around 100 protesters gathered along the route for Biden’s motorcade, chanting “Biden, Biden you can’t hide, you’re committing genocide,” and holding Palestinian flags. A handful of conservative protesters who oppose abortion also came out to the campus Tuesday.

Ali Abdel-Qader, 24, gathered with his friends to protest Biden’s event, saying protesters want to send a clear message to Biden that the Tampa community won’t tolerate what Abdel-Qader called an ongoing genocide.

“I’m Palestinian, these people are my brothers and sisters,” he said. “Biden is supplying Israel with weapons. This is a massacre that he is aiding and supporting.”

Seneca Bristol, 17, is president of the Voices of Florida Fund, which is organizing support for Florida’s abortion amendment. Bristol said the group was invited by Biden’s staff to participate in the event, but declined because of “everything Joe Biden has done in Palestine.”

Still, Biden is hoping his record on abortion will distinguish him from Trump and motivate people to turn out and vote. When he was president, Trump appointed three of the Supreme Court justices who overturned federal abortion protections. Biden’s administration has worked to safeguard access to the procedure, including by defending medication abortion in an ongoing U.S. Supreme Court case and by issuing an executive order that seeks to expand contraception access through federal health programs.

Will abortion be enough to carry Biden in expensive and increasingly conservative-leaning Florida?

A March survey conducted by Gallup found that voters are relatively unlikely to consider abortion their top issue. They’re far more likely to list the economy, immigration or the leadership of the country as top problems.

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(Times reporters Romy Ellenbogen, Divya Kumar, Justin Garcia and Lesley Cosme Torres contributed to this report.)

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