Voters haven’t seen much of former Vice President Joe Biden outside of his speech Thursday night at the Democratic National Convention.
But that’s about to change in a big way.
Since Biden won’t step forward to define himself… President Donald Trump’s campaign is about to do it for him.
And it won’t be a pleasant portrait.
On the flip side, Biden’s team has limited his public appearances to carefully staged events with few opportunities for questions about his record, his past, and the ethically challenged situations involving his troubled son, Hunter Biden.
So the Trump campaign is raising those questions itself as part of a surge in online spending that could add up to more than $10 million.
And it launched smack in the middle of the DNC.
“The Trump campaign is trying to make sure that Mr. Trump’s message will be almost impossible to miss even during the Democrats’ biggest week,” the New York Times reported.
The aggressive move includes 96 straight hours of YouTube advertising that ran during the DNC itself, The Hill notes. That’s even more significant than it may appear given how many watched the DNC via the streaming service.
Before tuning in to see Democrats lauding the former vice president… they had to see Trump’s message first.
“It’s great that Team Biden let the Trump campaign grab up the best premium real estate on the internet during Joe’s big week,” Tim Murtaugh, a spokesman for the Trump campaign, boasted in a news release. “We’ll show millions of Americans exactly how the radical, leftist takeover of Joe Biden is now complete.”
And that message is very much in opposition to the rosy picture painted by the Biden campaign.
One ad spot reminds voters of how Biden’s son profited off contacts China while his father was serving as vice president.
The devastating ad features a steelworker talking about plant closures, along with text reminding viewers that 60,000 factories closed as China seized control of steel and other industries while the Obama/Biden administration sat back and watched.
Biden himself even cheered it on.
“I believe then and I’m even more convinced now that a rising China is an incredibly positive development,” Biden says in the spot. “China has made remarkable, remarkable strides.”
As bad as that is for Biden, that’s not the worst of it.
The ad then turns toward Hunter Biden, noting that he was a founding partner of the private equity firm BHR partners, which was partially funded by Chinese banks – again, at a time when Biden’s dad was the vice president.
The former vice president admits in the video that his son called the move a mistake.
And the spot closes with analysts noting that both China and another American rival, Iran, want two things.
To see Trump defeated and Biden elected.
Given his history as Vice President, no surprise there.
Another ad ties Biden and his running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., to the radical left, and in particular politicians supporting the violent protests that have rocked multiple cities.
“Democrats have ruined their cities,” the ad warns. “Don’t let them destroy America.”
And another highlights racist comments made by Biden over the years:
The New York Times reports that the ads will also appear on the Wall Street Journal and Fox News homepages as well as in traditional leftist media sources, including on the homepage of the Washington Post.
And they will featured as “unskippable” ads on premium websites including Hulu.
In addition to the Trump ads, the Hill reports that the conservative group Club for Growth just launched a major ad campaign for Trump in the swing states of Arizona, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
It’s not even Labor Day yet, but it appears the 2020 campaign is officially in full swing.
— Walter W. Murray is a reporter for The Horn News. He is an outspoken conservative and a survival expert, and is the author of “America’s Final Warning.”