Washington, July 11: Embattled US President Joe Biden’s campaign released a new advertisement on Thursday, hitting out at his rival and former president Donald Trump for “siding with Putin,” and calling him a “lap dog for a dictator.” The advertisement – released to coincide with the last day of this week’s high-profile NATO summit here – is part of a larger USD 50 million paid media buy for July, ahead of the November 5 presidential election.
The ad also comes as Biden, 81, faces a huge task to reassure fellow Democrats and voters about his fitness for office following a disastrous debate performance against 78-year-old Trump. The advertisement slams Trump for suggesting Russia “do whatever the hell they want” to NATO members who do not meet defence spending targets, warning that the Republican Party’s presumptive candidate is “a lapdog for a dictator who blames ‘America first.’”
“Donald Trump is an unhinged wannabe dictator. If he’s reelected, he’ll be Vladimir Putin’s lap dog, giving him the green light to steamroll Europe and potentially spark World War III,” CNN quoted Biden campaign spokesperson Lauren Hitt as saying on Thursday.
“Democracy and American security are on the ballot this November, and President Biden is the only candidate in this race committed to protecting and promoting it at home and abroad,” it said.
Congressional Democrats are worried about Biden’s chances to win reelection, particularly in the wake of his disastrous debate on CNN last month, and that having him at the top of the ticket could also hurt the party in the election. Most Democrats have been reluctant to publicly call on Biden to step aside, but a growing number are saying so out loud, even after Biden has gone on the offensive this week to shore up support for a second term in the White House. Biden wrote to congressional Democrats Monday that he will continue his reelection bid despite mounting concerns.
Biden confronts decisive day; team says no Democrat would do better
The Biden campaign is laying out what it sees as its path to winning the White House in a new memo sent to its staffers Thursday, saying that winning the Blue Wall states of Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan is the “clearest pathway” to victory.
Though senior aides write in the memo that they could clinch 270 electoral votes in a number of ways, the new memo, obtained by the Associated Press, says those three states are critical and why President Joe Biden has prioritised those areas in his recent travels.
The memo, from campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon and campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez, also contends that Biden remains the strongest Democratic opponent to Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee. “There is also no indication that anyone else would outperform the president vs. Trump,” the memo says. “Hypothetical polling of alternative nominees will always be unreliable, and surveys do not take into account the negative media environment that any Democratic nominee will encounter. The only Democratic candidate for whom this is already baked in is President Biden.” (PTI/AP)
