乔·拜登的民主党高级代理人之一、宾夕法尼亚州州长乔什·夏皮罗周日敦促总统的其他支持者开始努力让他连任人们对他的选举前景感到担忧。
“嗯，比赛很接近。但要知道，竞选活动甚至还没有真正加入，”夏皮罗在被问及拜登和前总统唐纳德·特朗普在宾夕法尼亚州的早期民调为何如此激烈时告诉美国广播公司新闻“本周”节目的联合主播乔纳森·卡尔。宾夕法尼亚州可能是选举中的一个关键摇摆州。
夏皮罗说:“这就是我们参加比赛的原因。“我想对那些担心数字的人说:别担心了，开始工作吧。”
夏皮罗发表上述言论之际，一些民主党人私下和公开表达了对拜登政治未来的担忧——既因为民调和他的不受欢迎，也因为公众对他的年龄和是否适合担任公职的担忧。
拜登已经承认了这些问题但他说他的记录证明了他的资格.
“我的记忆——看一看我成为总统以来都做了些什么。你们没人认为我能通过任何我通过的考试。怎么会这样?”他本月早些时候告诉记者。
尽管如此，他在党内仍有明显的怀疑者。
《纽约时报》专栏作家埃兹拉·克莱因是拜登的支持者，上周说总统应该让位由于担心他会输给特朗普，夏皮罗拒绝了这一要求。
夏皮罗说:“我认为以斯拉是对的:赌注不能再高了，但乔·拜登将成为我们的提名人，我很自豪能支持他。”“总统、副总统和我们这些有幸支持他并坐在前排的人，我们现在必须走出去做这项重要的工作。”
其他一些外界的声音，像流行的电台主持人查拉尼·塔神在周日播出的“本周”采访中呼吁拜登更多地依靠夏皮罗和其他知名政客来帮助提高他的地位。
州长乔希·夏皮罗在美国笔会联席会议上发表了2024-25财年预算报告.
马特·洛克/美联社，档案
这位州长被视为一颗冉冉升起的民主党之星，并在2022年以约15个百分点的优势赢得了选举——在一个战场州，这是一个巨大的优势。
夏皮罗告诉卡尔，他赞赏查拉尼的观点，并表示他打算帮助说服宾夕法尼亚州人支持拜登。
夏皮罗说:“在接下来的几个月里，我将在我的政治权力范围内尽一切努力支持唐纳德·特朗普——支持乔·拜登是捍卫我们自由的候选人。”。
他吹捧了拜登自己经常提到的一些工作，如基础设施投资，并表示特朗普正在竞选一个限制堕胎和结束患者保护与平价医疗法案的平台，即所谓的奥巴马医改。夏皮罗说，奥巴马医改为宾夕法尼亚州的100多万人提供了医疗保健服务。
据美国广播公司消息，川普一直避免在堕胎限制问题上采取严格立场，但他庆祝了罗诉韦德案的结束，并私下表示支持为期16周的全国性禁令，但有一些例外以前报告过。他还承诺实施奥巴马医改的其他医疗保健立法。
在“本周”节目中，夏皮罗援引了特朗普的第一个任期。
夏皮罗说:“还记得唐纳德·特朗普担任总统时的情况吗:他每天都在我们的脸上和客厅里制造混乱。
尽管拜登有这些问题，但他表示，总统可能会与特朗普再次交锋，这是一件更大的事情。
夏皮罗说:“虽然唐纳德·特朗普和乔·拜登的名字最终可能会出现在选票上，并成为我们在11月的选择，但这次选举确实关系到我们所有人，以及我们是否会站起来，用我们的声音和最终我们的选票来保护我们的基本自由，为我们想要的国家大声疾呼。”
他指出，自2016年特朗普以微弱优势赢得宾夕法尼亚州以来，该州的选举预测那里的选民将再次拒绝前总统的政治品牌。
夏皮罗说:“(2016年后)每次宾夕法尼亚人有机会去投票时，他们都投票支持自由，反对极端主义。“他们在2020年拒绝了唐纳德·特朗普，他们在2022年以历史性的优势投票给了我。就在去年的2023年，我们举行了一场主要关注自由和选择权的最高法院竞选，我们选举了民主党人。”
“在许多方面，这次选举与乔·拜登和唐纳德·特朗普的关系不大，更多的是关于我们和我们想要建设的国家，”他接着说。“我对美国人民充满信心，正如他们在2020年所做的那样，他们将奋起反抗。他们会要求更多。他们将寻求正义。他们将寻求捍卫这个国家的自由，他们将拒绝唐纳德·特朗普。”
Gov. Shapiro, top Biden surrogate, acknowledges close race with Trump: 'Stop worrying and start working'
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, one of Joe Biden's top Democratic surrogates, on Sunday urged the president's other supportersto start putting in the work to reelect himamid worries over his prospects at the ballot box.
"Well, the race is close. But understand, the campaign hasn't really even joined yet," Shapiro told ABC News "This Week" co-anchor Jonathan Karl when asked why the early polls are so tight between Biden and former President Donald Trump in Pennsylvania, which is likely to be a key swing state in the election.
"This is the reason why we run races," Shapiro said. "And I would say to folks who are worried about the numbers: Stop worrying and start working."
Shapiro's comments come as some Democrats privately and publicly voice concerns over Biden's political future -- both because of the polls and his unpopularity as well as the public's well-established unease about his age and fitness for office.
Biden has acknowledged those issuesbut said his record proves his qualifications.
"My memory -- take a look at what I've done since I've become president. None of you thought I could pass any of the things I got passed. How'd that happen?" he told reporters earlier this month.
Still, he has notable skeptics in his party.
New York Times columnist Ezra Klein, a Biden supporter,said last week that the president should step asideout of fear he would lose to Trump -- a call Shapiro shot down.
"I think Ezra is right: The stakes could not be higher, but Joe Biden is going to be our nominee, and I'm proud to support him," Shapiro said. "The president, the vice president and those of us who are privileged to support him and have a front row seat to this, we've got to go out and do this important work now."
Some other outside voices, like popular radio host Charlamagne tha Goddid in a "This Week" interview that also aired Sunday, have called on Biden to rely more on Shapiro and other big-name politicians to help boost his standing.
The governor is seen as a rising Democratic star and won his election in 2022 by some 15 points -- a huge margin in a battleground state.
Shapiro told Karl that he appreciated Charlamagne's perspective and said that he intends to help persuade Pennsylvanians to stick with Biden.
"I'm going to do everything in my political power over the course of the next several months to make the case, to prosecute the case, against Donald Trump -- to make the case about how Joe Biden is the candidate standing up for our freedom," Shapiro said.
He touted some of the work that Biden himself often cites, like infrastructure investments, and said that Trump is running on a platform to restrict abortion access and end the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, which Shapiro said provides health care access to more than a million people in Pennsylvania.
Trump has publicly avoided taking a strict stance on abortion restrictions but has celebrated the end of Roe v. Wade and privately signaled support for a national, 16-week ban, with some exceptions, ABC Newspreviously reported. He has also promised to implement other health care legislation over Obamacare.
On "This Week," Shapiro invoked Trump's first term in office.
"Remember what it was like when Donald Trump was president: He was in our faces and in our living room every day injecting chaos," Shapiro said.
Despite Biden's issues, he said that the president's likely rematch against Trump was about something bigger.
"While Donald Trump and Joe Biden's names may ultimately be on the ballot and be our choices in November, this election really is about all of us and whether or not we're going to rise up and use our voices and ultimately our vote to protect our fundamental freedoms, to scream out for the kind of country that we want," Shapiro said.
He pointed to the elections in Pennsylvania since 2016, when Trump narrowly won the state, to predict that voters there will again reject the former president's brand of politics.
"Every other time Pennsylvanians have had the opportunity to go to the ballot [after 2016], they have voted for freedom and against extremism," Shapiro said. "They rejected Donald Trump in 2020, they voted for me by an historic margin in 2022. Just last year in 2023, we had a Supreme Court race that was largely focused on freedom and the right to choose, and we elected the Democrat."
"In many ways, this election is less about Joe Biden and Donald Trump and more about us and the kind of country that we want to build," he went on to say. "And I've got confidence in the American people that just as they did in 2020, they will rise up. They will demand more. They will seek justice. And they will look to defend freedom in this nation, and they will reject Donald Trump."
