Biden to visit Democratic headquarters as Election Day nears

DELAWARE: President Joe Biden will visit the Democratic National Committee headquarters on Monday as he looks to pep up staff and volunteers with just over two weeks to go before Election Day.

Biden is expected to deliver remarks that look to contrast his plan to lower drug costs for Americans while taking aim at Republicans whom he says will look to cut medicare and social security benefits and look to make permanent the GOP's 2017 changes to tax rates, according to a Democratic official.

The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to preview Biden's remarks, said the president will also discuss job growth, an unemployment rate that hovers near 50-year lows, and declining gasoline prices during his remarks to the DNC's Washington offices.

Biden has stepped up his push in recent weeks to highlight his legislative wins for voters while trying to make the case that a Republican takeover of the House and Senate would lead to setbacks for American families.

Last week, he delivered a mix of policy and political speeches on gasoline prices, his bipartisan infrastructure bill, his push for student debt forgiveness, and the impact of the U.S. Supreme Court's June abortion ruling and efforts by Republican state legislatures to restrict abortion access.

But his legislative wins come as stubborn inflation — consumer prices are up 8.2 per cent from a year ago — continue to weigh heavily on Americans. A federal appeals court on Friday also issued an administrative stay temporarily blocking Biden's plan to cancel billions of dollars in federal student loans, throwing the program into limbo.

Republicans looking to wrest Democrats control of the House and Senate have sought to make the election a referendum on Biden.

As a result, Biden has spent more time at fundraisers and touting his administration's policy wins this election cycle as his approval ratings remain underwater, and many Democrats aren't eager to stand by him on the campaign trail.