As the presidential candidates prepare for next month’s debate, President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign will air a new ad on Friday focusing on the aftermath of the 2020 election and portraying presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump as a candidate motivated by a desire to regain power.
The ad, first seen by Capital-Star ahead of its premiere, features the voice of actor Robert DeNiro and images of Trump during his presidency and after his November loss, up to and including the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol.
“From midnight tweets, to drinking bleach, to gassing citizens and organizing photo shoots. We knew Trump was out of control when he was president,” the voiceover says. “Then he lost the 2020 election and he snapped.”
New place is part of the Biden campaign’s $14 million ad buy in May and will air live on free-to-air television in battleground states and on national cable television. The ad will appear on digital platforms in battleground states on Friday.
“Donald Trump is obsessed with his own vengeance and vengeance, claims there will be a ‘bloodbath’ if he loses, and promises to become a dictator ‘on day one’ if he wins – even calling for the ‘sunset’ of the Constitution,” said Julie Chavez Rodriguez , Biden-Harris campaign manager, in a statement to the Capital-Star. “This ad shows the stark contrast voters will see a month from now when Trump stands on the debate stage next to Joe Biden: Trump is running to reclaim power for himself, Joe Biden is running to serve you, the American people.”
Biden and Trump are scheduled to face off in a debate in Atlanta on June 27, which will be broadcast on CNN without a studio audience. Biden told the Commission on Presidential Debates that he would not agree to the three-debate schedule previously set by the nonpartisan organization that has organized presidential debates since the 1980s. With this schedule, the first debate would not take place until September 16.
While Trump doesn’t appear to have a significant campaign apparatus in Pennsylvania yet, Biden’s campaign does opened twenty offices across the state, including in ‘red’ areas such as York and Lancaster. Biden has made seven appearances in Pennsylvania this year, including weekly stops in Scranton, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia in the week before the April 23 primary.
During his first visit to Pittsburgh in 2024, Biden focused on unions and steel
So far in 2024, Trump has made three campaign appearances in Pennsylvania, including a National Rifle Association event in Harrisburg, a surprise appearance at Sneaker Con in Philadelphia and a rally in the Lehigh Valley. On Thursday, Trump, who is on trial in New York for allegedly concealing hush money payments in 2016, organized a rally in the Bronxtraditionally a Democratic stronghold.
Trump returns to Pennsylvania with a rally in the key Lehigh Valley
Cook Political Report, a nationwide ratings site, ranks Pennsylvania as one of six states losing the presidential race this cycle. Its 19 electoral votes are the most of any other state in this category. AND Philadelphia Inquirer/New York Times/Siena College Poll released on May 13 shows Biden trailing Trump in five of six battleground states, including Pennsylvania, where 47% of respondents said they would choose Trump and 44% said they would vote for Biden.
In 2020, Biden defeated Trump in Pennsylvania by just over 80,000 votes.
