New advertising designed to “re-launch” Donald Trump’s presidential campaign tacitly concedes that the incumbent is behind Vice President Joe Biden. The ads from the Trump campaign released on August 3 are all in states Trump won in 2016 – Arizona, Florida, Georgia and North Carolina. Trump is currently tied with or slightly behind Biden in all of those states.
Desperate for good headlines, the Trump campaign gave its allies at the right-wing Fox News an “exclusive” heads-up on the new initiative purportedly spearheaded by campaign manager Bill Stepien. Stepien was brought on board after Trump ousted former campaign manager Brad Parscale, who was seen by many as lining his own pockets with Trump donor money.
Even Fox, who has consistently been a propaganda organ for the Republican Party, admitted that Trump is trailing Biden.
“Trump’s poll numbers both nationally and in key battlegrounds reflect him consistently trailing Biden, as he faces national concerns about his leadership amid the coronavirus pandemic,” Fox News reported.
The new Trump campaign is built around the ad entitled “Takeover” which makes the inaccurate claim that Biden is being controlled by the left.
The Trump ad prominently features Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) who has become the right’s boogeyman, in the tradition of Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Secretary Hillary Clinton. Ocasio-Cortez recently won a landslide victory in the New York Democratic primary, where an opponent bankrolled by many Trump supporters was defeated.
The Trump campaign message against Biden has been wildly inconsistent, a reflection of Donald Trump’s erratic attacks filtering their way through the official party apparatus. Trump and the RNC have simultaneously falsely claimed Biden has dementia, is corrupt, is a puppet of the far left, and is more left-wing than Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT).
The new round of ads for Trump come as voters are on the verge of casting early and absentee ballots due to the pandemic. Democrats effectively pushed early voting in the 2018 midterms, which took control of the House from the Republicans.
One of the first political bloggers in the world, Oliver Willis has operated OliverWillis.com since 2000. Contributor at Media Matters for America and The American Independent. Follow on Twitter at @owillis. Full bio.