Biden touts Gateway Tunnel funding. Did he just plunge into campaign mode? | Stile

Amid the pageantry of President Joe Biden's visit to New York to tout the Gateway Hudson River tunnel project, Senate Majority Chuck Schumer laid bare the raw, political purpose of the trip.

"Get on the Joe Biden Express now, because we are not stopping," Schumer said, deploying just one of many tired train cliches that peppered remarks at Tuesday's event in a Manhattan rail yard.

The taxpayer-funded visit edged very close to becoming a Biden for President 2024 rally, as a roster of New Jersey and New York Democrats closed ranks to cheer the project — and their party's likely nominee.

The Biden Express? It was more of a plea to jump on the Biden Bandwagon.

It was a visit laden with 2024 messaging and attack lines. Schumer, serving as emcee — and campaign attack dog — trashed former President Donald Trump as a transactional thug who sabotaged the project during his lone term. Schumer also reached back in time to Trump's erstwhile Republican enabler, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, whom he assailed for killing the Gateway's predecessor project, the Access to the Region's Core, in 2010.

That project might very well have been completed by now; instead, the century-old train tunnel was left to decay in Superstorm Sandy's salty brine and has continued to delay commuters for years.

Schumer called Christie's "one of the worst decisions that any governor on either side of the Hudson has made. We had to start all over again."

Biden, sounding at turns both pugnacious and aspirational, also sent a meta-message to Trump and the likes of Rep. Matt Gaetz and other Freedom Caucus nihilists who have seized the House. To the far-right Republicans working to enfeeble Speaker Kevin McCarthy, Biden offered this:

You want to use your new perch of power to rehabilitate the legally hounded Trump? Go for it.

You want to pry into my son Hunter's laptop? Have at it.

You want to wander down a rabbit hole over the "weaponization" of government? We can't stop you.

Eager to hold the government hostage with a bunch of vague and unpopular demands for spending cuts? Rather you didn't, but that's your prerogative.

In Manhattan on Tuesday, Biden seemed to say: We are going to show you that good governance can produce thousands of well-paying, sustainable jobs that can build modern infrastructure to power the economy of the Northeast and the nation.

You want to wrap yourself around the tired "Make America Great Again" slogan?

How about trying on for size this poll-tested theme of bipartisanship: "America Is Great When We Unify."

Coverage from Manhattan:Joe Biden announces grant for Gateway tunnel project in visit to New York

'We can move this nation forward'

"We can really get big things done," the president said. "We can do anything. We really can. We can move this nation forward. We can send another message as well, a message of pride, pride in our country, of what we can do together."

The event followed a similar show-and-tell infrastructure visit the day before in Baltimore and just two days after Trump, who has declared himself a candidate for 2024, road-tested some of his own campaign themes in South Carolina.

As Trump wallowed in grievance and Archie Bunker-style culture war crabbing — "We're going to stop the left-wing radical racists and perverts who are trying to indoctrinate our youth" — Biden boasted of the skilled union workers who will soon be wallowing in the Hudson River muck, laying the groundwork for "one of the most consequential projects in the country."

“But it’s gonna take time. It’s a multibillion-dollar effort between the states and the federal government," the president said. "But we finally have the money, and we’re gonna get it done. I promise you, we're going to get it done."

That promise — and the allusion to investing billions of dollars — also stands in stark contrast to Christie's ARC decision. At that time, Christie was the rising Republican Party star who shocked the nation by killing the largest infrastructure project in the nation. He was sending a message that he was going to be a cost-conscious conservative, unafraid to ruffle the feathers of powerful trade unions and the political establishment. It branded him as a brash, smaller-government conservative, willing to tell the nation that we could do with less.

Presiding over its successor, Biden was making the opposite argument. America needs to spend more to do more. American exceptionalism comes with a price.

"We've talked about asserting American leadership once again, building the best economy in the world," he said. "But to have the best economy in the world, you have to have the best infrastructure in the world. People don't build factories if there are not rail stations or ports, without access to highways."

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Looking ahead to 2024's presidential field

The visit also served as a reminder for Gov. Phil Murphy and New Jersey's Sen. Cory Booker that they will likely have to put their dreams of the presidency on indefinite, if not permanent, hold. Biden made it clear that he has no desire to vanish quietly into history and forgo a run for president next year at the age of 81.

Murphy and Booker served as party stalwarts and role players in the Biden Express Show on Tuesday and will probably retain those roles for the foreseeable future.

Some Democrats worry that if Republicans rally around Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, 44, as their nominee, the party will need a more youthful nominee for 2024. DeSantis would cast himself as a fresh, generational choice for the nation, while Biden will be cast as a fossil whose time has passed. But as a beaming Biden bounded up to the podium (leaving him slightly winded), he made it clear that he's not going anywhere.

"I give you my word as a Biden: I've never been more optimistic about America's prospects in my entire life," he said.

Nor his own.

Charlie Stile is a veteran political columnist. For his insight on New Jersey politics and his powerful watchdog work, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

Email: stile@northjersey.com

Twitter: @politicalstile

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Stile: Gateway Tunnel funding touted by Joe Biden