Sen. Chris Coons thinks Joe Biden can improve his popularity by drinking more boba tea

Sen. Chris Coons has no doubt President Joe Biden has what it takes to serve another term at 81 years old.

But Coons (D., Del.) is also candid about what he thinks Biden needs to do to reverse skepticism people have about Biden’s age and ability: More coffee shops, fewer podiums.

“Joe Biden’s particular benefit has always been, it’s Joe and Jill,” Coons said Monday in a wide-ranging interview with The Inquirer Editorial Board. “Not President Biden and Dr. Biden, right? So get out from behind the podium. Go visit people where they actually live, record it on these stupid things. Post it … that’s where people are.”

Coons has known Biden for a long time. The junior senator from Delaware was elected to Biden’s seat in 2010 after Biden stepped down to serve as vice president in 2009, and now Coons cochairs Biden’s presidential reelection campaign.

He was one of several Biden allies to defend him after a special counsel report cleared Biden of facing criminal charges in a classified documents probe but portrayed him as an elderly man with memory issues.

“He’s not going to get any younger,” Coons said. “As he often says, ‘Don’t compare me to the Almighty compare me to the alternative. And if you watched five minutes of Trump’s rally … the comparison to the alternative is pretty bracing.”

As Biden stares down a tough November election campaign, his popularity has remained low and polls show a majority of Americans think he’s too old to be president. Biden’s campaign continues to contrast the president with former President Donald Trump, arguing democracy is again on the line and touting Biden’s accomplishments in office on issues like infrastructure and job creation.

But it’s done little to improve his standing nationally or in swing states like Pennsylvania, where he typically polls in a dead heat with Trump.

Coons said he’d recently been in a 2½-hour meeting with Biden and a handful of senators on foreign policy in which Biden was “stunningly engaged and present and focused.” He thinks more people should see what Biden’s like in smaller gatherings.

Biden’s campaign has already started staging more intimate stops on recent trips, aware that his sometimes rambling speeches at larger events attract GOP criticism. Biden visited a barbershop in South Carolina, went to a barbecue at a family’s home in North Carolina, and popped into a coffee shop and a running store on a visit to Allentown last month. Coverage of him ordering a boba tea in Las Vegas took off on social media. On Super Bowl Sunday, the campaign launched a TikTok account to reach younger voters.

“The president, in five minutes hanging out in someone’s kitchen in North Carolina … got 5 million views on a platform I’ve never heard of,” Coons said. “Put on the quarter zip and put on some jeans and walk on into people’s houses and be Joe Biden. And they like you and they connect with you. Stop being presidential all the time.”

A difficulty, Coons acknowledged, is the serious moment in history Biden is presiding over with wars in Ukraine and the Middle East. Biden’s gut instinct, Coons said, is to be presidential but that’s not who Biden’s running against.

Trump, by contrast, rarely holds small events, opting for rallies before large crowds. He’s also someone who innately understands how to reach people on social media and TV. Trump seized on Biden’s bad week, telling a crowd at a rally in Harrisburg Friday: “I have a guy I’m competing against, he hasn’t spoken in months. And when he does, it’s not pretty. Not pretty.”

Biden held a news conference Thursday night in which he sharply rebuked the accusations about his mental fitness in Special Counsel Robert K. Hur’s report. “I’m well-meaning and I’m an elderly man, and I know what the hell I’m doing,” Biden said, responding to language in the report.

But at one point he confused the countries of Mexico and Egypt, which wound up largely overshadowing the news conference.

For Coons and allies of Biden it was frustrating to see so much attention on that gaffe, given Biden has been verbally flubbing since he was a much younger politician. Trump, meanwhile, faces 91 felony counts, and he’s often making incendiary comments, like on Saturday when he warned NATO allies that he “would encourage” Russia “to do whatever the hell they want” to a member country that didn’t meet its defense spending guidelines.

Looking ahead, Coons suggested that particularly for Biden in Pennsylvania, the president might consider hitting more sports bars with his wife, a known Philly sports fan.

“Jill is the strongest, toughest Eagles fan I’ll ever meet, show a little bit of that,” Coons said. “Because … we’re not going to reconnect the American electorate to a guy in a suit and tie standing behind a podium having, like, fights with the press about, ‘You say, I’m too old.’”