Joe Biden is spending $50 million to remind you Donald Trump is a convicted felon
Chip Somodevilla, Steven Hirsch-Pool/Getty Images
- Biden doesn't want swing voters to forget Donald Trump is a convicted felon.
- The Biden campaign is spending $50 million on a media blitz that includes a biting attack ad on Trump.
- The ad highlights Trump's conviction while painting Biden as "fighting for your family."
Joe Biden isn't wasting any time using Donald Trump's felony conviction to his advantage — and he's spending big bucks to do it.
The Biden campaign announced on Monday that it's shelling out $50 million for an advertising blitz against Trump, including a TV ad that will begin running in all battleground states.
And all that money is just for the remainder of June alone — a crucial few weeks ahead of the first presidential debate on June 27.
The 30-second "Character Matters" TV ad zeroes in on Trump's legal troubles: his 34 felony convictions and losses in court that found he was liable for sexual assault and committed financial fraud.
In contrast, the ad says, Joe Biden has been at work "lowering healthcare costs and making big corporations pay their fair share."
"This election is between a convicted criminal who's only out for himself, and a president who's fighting for your family," the ad concludes.
"Trump approaches the first debate as a convicted felon who continues to prove that he will do anything and harm anyone if it means more power and vengeance for Donald Trump," the campaign's Communications Director, Michael Tyler, said in a statement.
"That's why he was convicted, that's why he encouraged a violent mob to storm the Capitol on January 6, and it's why his entire campaign is an exercise in revenge and retribution; because that man is blind to the people a president should be serving and will do absolutely anything for his own personal gain and for his own power," Tyler continued.
Trump and his campaign have painted his legal woes as part of political persecution, alleging without evidence that Biden himself has orchestrated a conspiracy against his rival.
Biden is in charge of the federal government; Trump's legal losses have all occurred in state-run courts.
The Biden campaign's media blitz also includes a seven-figure investment targeting Black, Hispanic, and Asian American voters.
That includes separate ads highlighting the importance of the Affordable Care Act on Asian American and Hawaiian Pacific Islander voters, emphasizing Biden's fight against corporate greed to Spanish speakers, and underscoring the positive impact Biden has had on Black communities, the campaign said in its statement.
The campaign is seeking to reverse recent polling that shows Trump with a narrow but durable lead nationally and in key swing states. Even states that have trended reliably Democratic like Virginia are showing a virtual tie, according to recent polling.
Meanwhile, Biden's approval rating has fallen to record lows as progressive young voters hammer his support for Israel's war in Gaza.