WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign said Monday it will spend $50 million through the end of June on a new advertising campaign that includes efforts to highlight Republican Donald Trump’s felony conviction.
The costly advertising push comes with election day still more than four and a half months away. But Biden’s campaign says it wants to more clearly define the choice between the two candidates ahead of the first debate between them in Atlanta on June 27.
A central part of Biden’s campaign strategy is to highlight Trump’s far-reaching policy proposals for a second term and energize disaffected Democrats and independent voters. The campaign producing an ad that relies heavily on Trump’s beliefs and including it in such a major ad buy signals a renewed attempt to turn Trump’s legal troubles into an election issue in a way that Biden’s team is previously resisted.
The new ad campaign includes more than $1 million, targeting media outlets that reach Black, Latinx and Asian American voters, and an ad highlighting Trump’s conviction on 34 felonies in a New York hush-money case. That spot will air on general market television and connected TV on streaming devices and mobile phones in theaters of war, as well as on national cable.
In addition to Trump’s criminal conviction, the ad, titled “Character Matters,” notes that the former president was also found liable for sexual assault and financial fraud in separate proceedings. Trump also faces felony charges in three separate criminal cases, none of which will go to trial before the November election.
“This election is between a convicted criminal who is only out for himself and a president who fights for your family,” the ad’s narrator says over images of a Trump mugshot and Biden high-fiving supporters.
The Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment Sunday evening. But Trump has denied any wrongdoing and argued without evidence that Biden or Justice Department officials orchestrated the New York case against him for political reasons. He and his allies have also raised the prospect of pursuing political opponents in revenge if he returns to the White House.
