Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden announced a new campaign yesterday called “Todos Con Biden” (Everyone With Biden) to help organize Latinx support for the former vice president. But there’s just one little problem: The Biden campaign forgot to register the web address, Facebook name, and Twitter handle for the new initiative, allowing the Trump reelection campaign to scoop them up and use the accounts to spread anti-Biden messages.
Biden spent Wednesday talking about his new Latinx outreach campaign in Iowa and Pennsylvania, but anyone who visits todosconbiden.com is now greeted with a message that reads, “Oops, Joe forgot about Latinos” in both English and Spanish. The buttons on the page lead to a campaign called Latinos For Trump, and a notice in the lower left corner reads, “Paid for by Donald J. Trump For President, Inc.”
But it’s not just the web address. The Biden campaign didn’t secure the Facebook name and Twitter handle either, which are now controlled by the Trump campaign. The Twitter account includes clips of Biden saying things like “We need family separation” and “Poor kids are just as bright and just as talented as white kids,” just two of countless gaffes Biden has made.
Forgetting to register a domain is an embarrassing oversight for the Biden campaign, which seems to be stuck in the 1990s.
Amazingly, the Biden campaign isn’t taking the web address mixup as a strategic loss and simply moving on. Instead, Biden’s campaign is calling the domain purchase a “childish” move, rather than a pretty standard campaign tactic here in the 21st century.
But don’t take my word for just how bad Biden’s online strategy clearly is. Biden’s YouTube announcement of the “Todos con Biden” campaign from yesterday has just 755 views as of this writing. That’s not a typo. Biden’s video has 755 views, roughly equivalent to a tutorial on how to clean carpets in an Audi. In fact, the random carpet cleaning video has been up for even less time than Biden’s video and still has the same number of views.
Biden’s digital outreach is pathetic and Trump is already spending millions online. It doesn’t really matter that a whopping 50 percent of Americans want President Trump impeached and removed from office. As we saw in 2016, Trump doesn’t need a majority of Americans to vote for him.
Trump lost by almost 3 million votes in the popular vote and U.S. elections are a game that can be rigged through online disinformation campaigns and the Electoral College. Without a serious online strategy, Biden could easily hand Trump the election.
The Biden campaign can call Trump’s strategy “childish” all day long, but Biden’s advisors need to pull their heads out of their asses if they want to catch up with Trump’s digital campaign. Step One: Anytime you announce a new initiative make sure you buy the domain first. It takes just 30 seconds and maybe 15 bucks.