MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Super Tuesday pushed us closer to a Biden-Trump rematch in the fall. Nikki Haley is suspending her campaign this morning after former President Donald Trump came close to sweeping GOP primaries and caucuses yesterday. Democratic contests, for the most part, went President Biden's way. But in Minnesota, we saw what seems to be another protest of his administration's support for Israel and its war in Gaza, similar to what happened in Michigan last month. Almost 20% of Minnesota's Democratic voters selected uncommitted instead of Biden. Let's ask Biden campaign spokesman Kevin Munoz about that. He's with us now. Good morning.
KEVIN MUNOZ: Good morning. Thank you for having me, Michel.
MARTIN: Thanks for coming. So just - first, just put this into context for us. How does the Biden campaign see this - what we're seeing, what we've seen in - first in Michigan, now in Minnesota, tens of thousands of Democratic voters casting ballots for uncommitted? What do you all think that means?
MUNOZ: Look, first of all, I would say uncommitted has historically received a significant share of the vote in certain states on Super Tuesday. This isn't necessarily a new phenomenon. You know, in 2012, uncommitted got 19% of the vote, for example, in Alabama. But unlike the guy that we are running against and, when it comes to the uncommitted vote, this election, the president actually believes that making your voice heard, participating in our democracy isn't just necessary; it's fundamental to who we are as a country.
And so he shares the goal of so many of these voters for an end to the violence and a just and lasting peace in the Middle East. He's working towards that. And this campaign is all about not asking, but earning the support of these voters and the entire coalition that sent us to the White House. And that's what we're going to do between now and November.
MARTIN: So it seems like there might be two issues here, maybe an enthusiasm gap among some people connected to, you know, whatever issues, but then real disagreement over issues like, say, the administration's approach to Gaza or perhaps to immigration. And people who tend to have those disagreements have been very important to Mr. Biden's electoral success. How do you deal with that?
MUNOZ: Now, look, again, this is all about reaching and mobilizing the voters who will decide this election, talking to them early and often. And that's exactly what this campaign has been able to do since the fall and exactly what we're going to be doing, especially following State of the Union, where voters are increasingly turned into this election. And, look, Michel, we can do that because we have the resources and the investments - February was our best grassroots fundraising month to date - to start reaching these voters and talk about the choice that the American people will face in this election between Donald Trump and what looks to be Joe Biden.
MARTIN: So setting disagreements of a policy aside, not saying that those are small, but why doesn't the president get more credit for things that seem to be going well, like job growth, like the stock market, like forgiving student debt, even though he didn't - wasn't able to approach it in the way that he wanted, but he has, you know, tens of thousands of people, infrastructure spending. Why doesn't he get more credit for that?
MUNOZ: Yeah. Look, we live in a highly personalized, highly fragmented media environment in which a lot of Americans, including a lot of my friends, are just not tuned in to the politics on day to day. And we know that so many Americans have fatigue from Donald Trump and that we have to do more and do more often to reach voters about what Joe Biden is accomplishing. And I think tomorrow night, the State of the Union, is going to be a really important moment to talk just about these historic investments into infrastructure, these historic investments into HBCUs, the work we've done to lower costs and talk about what we would do in a second administration.
MARTIN: That is Biden campaign spokesman Kevin Munoz. Kevin, thanks so much for talking with us.
MUNOZ: Thank you, Michel. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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