Biden campaign out of step with admin's positions as officials try to walk delicate line

President Biden’s re-election campaign is increasingly out of step with the White House's position on the issues.

President Biden speaks at the YMCA Allard Center in Goffstown, New Hampshire, on Monday. (Jason Bergman/Bloomberg)

"Who’s Donald Trump’s squad? Let’s take a look at their rap sheets," Biden-Harris 2024 Rapid Response spokesperson Sarafina Chitika wrote. "Donald Trump is kicking off the general election with a starting lineup guaranteed to repel the moderate Republicans… Hungarian dictator Viktor Orbán, and convicted felon Roger Stone."

The punchy note titled, "Donald Trump: Who U Wit?," was written by Chitika, a 2019 Harvard graduate who was also responsible for a Democratic National Committee statement in January that mocked the end of Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s 2024 bid, prompting President Biden to direct his chief of staff to apologize to Hutchinson by phone.

In the highly choreographed foreign policy world, statements representing the views of the incumbent President of the United States would not be made without careful consideration — much less in the footnote of a campaign email. In fact, Secretary of State Antony Blinken visibly winced when President Biden referred to Chinese Communist President Xi Jinping as a dictator when questioned by reporters at a recent summit. Chitika’s remark about Hungary’s Orbán also comes as the Biden administration is withholding support for Ukraine’s accession to NATO, citing outstanding democratic benchmarks.

Although U.S. officials have previously voiced deep concern over Hungary’s democratic backsliding and close ties to Russia, no U.S. administration has deemed Hungary to be a dictatorship. In 2014, Sen. John McCain sparked a diplomatic feud that prompted Hungary’s foreign minister to summon the U.S. envoy after McCain said in a speech that Hungary was "on the verge of ceding its sovereignty to a neo-fascist dictator."

For several days following Chitika’s email, White House and campaign officials ignored or declined requests to comment. At Tuesday’s White House briefing, national security adviser Jake Sullivan dodged answering whether the U.S. officially sees its NATO ally as a dictatorship.

President Donald Trump, left, shakes hands with Viktor Orbán, Hungary's prime minister, at the West Wing of the White House in Washington, D.C., on May 13, 2019. (Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg)

Sullivan, asked about the incident Tuesday, again attempted to walk the delicate line between upholding the campaign-trail commentary of his boss and the official positions of his boss’s government. "The president stands by his statement, and I’m not walking back his statement," Sullivan said. "All I’m saying is that our position is totally consistent."

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The Biden campaign has also encountered contradictions with the administration’s official position through its embrace of TikTok. Despite reportedly vowing last year that it would not join the app, the campaign launched an account last month as part of its strategy to "reach the voters where they are."

The decision boxed in White House officials once again, with the federal inter-agency committee known as CFIUS (Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States) still mulling its decision to recommend a nationwide ban over national security concerns. White House national security adviser John Kirby said in a Feb. 12 briefing, "I can only tell you that it’s not allowed on government devices. That policy remains the case. And I just can’t speak for the campaign on their decisions."

Kirby declined to answer why the president would partake in videos on a platform his administration deems to be a threat.

Despite reportedly vowing last year that it would not join TikTok, the Biden campaign launched an account last month as part of its strategy to "reach the voters where they are." (iStock)

This week, FBI Director Christopher Wray affirmed at a Senate worldwide threats hearing that the app is controlled by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and poses a significant national security concern, in part because its algorithm could be manipulated to help or hurt candidates in the 2024 U.S. election.

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"The key point is that the parent company is, for all intents and purposes, beholden to the CCP," Wray said.

Meanwhile, the House of Representatives on Wednesday passed a bill with both Democratic and Republican support that could pave the way for TikTok to be banned in U.S. app stores.

Jacqui Heinrich currently serves as a White House correspondent for FOX News Channel (FNC). She joined the network in September 2018 and is based out of Washington D.C.

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