As President Biden tours Pennsylvania, his campaign is rolling out a new ad touting his commitment to organized labor and attacking former President Donald J. Trump’s economic policies.
The ad features JoJo Burgess, a steelworker and mayor of Washington, Pennsylvania, a small city southwest of Pittsburgh. Mr. Biden is scheduled to speak at the headquarters of the United Steelworkers union in Pittsburgh on Wednesday, where he is expected to ask his trade representative to increase some tariffs on steel and aluminum products from China.
“Donald Trump has shown in his history that he doesn’t care about workers,” Burgess says in the one-minute ad. “Right now we have the most pro-American working-class president in office that we have ever had in our history.”
The Biden campaign said it spent in the “mid-six figures” to spread the message on television and digital platforms in Pennsylvania, aside from a $30 million advertising campaign in key battleground states. It is hoped the ad will supplement media coverage of Mr. Biden’s three-day visit to Pennsylvania, which is scheduled to end in Philadelphia on Thursday. Winning the state where he narrowly defeated Mr. Trump in 2020 is crucial to his re-election strategy.
The new ad reinforces the argument Mr. Biden is making against Mr. Trump on the economy, accusing the former president of siding with billionaires rather than workers. In a speech outlining his tax policy in Scranton, his hometown, on Tuesday, Mr. Biden prevailed over Mr. Trump.
“He learned that the best way to get rich is to inherit it,” Mr. Biden said of his rival.
Mr. Burgess, a Democrat, was a guest of Mr. Biden at the president’s State of the Union address in 2022. Last year, he became the first black mayor of Washington, Pennsylvania. The Biden campaign said the ad featuring Mr. Burgess would run on newscasts as well as regional sports networks.
The campaign also released a shorter ad featuring Mr. Burgess for digital platforms. In this ad, Mr. Burgess defends Mr. Biden against attacks by Mr. Trump and other Republicans on his age and mental fitness.
“When you meet him, this guy is as sharp as a knife,” Mr. Burgess said of the president. “They have nothing else to attack because they can’t attack the things he’s doing that are so good for this country.”
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2024-04-17 13:05:11
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