President Biden’s campaign released a new commercial Friday starring actor Robert De Niro that aims to remind voters of the chaos of Donald J. Trump’s presidency and warn them that a second Trump term would be even worse.
The spot is part of the Biden campaign’s $14 million advertising effort in May and will air on television and digital platforms in battleground states, as well as on national cable channels.
Mr. De Niro openly opposed Mr. Trump’s presidency, calling him “baby-in-chief” at the National Board of Review awards gala in 2018 and denouncing him with expletives at the Tony Awards that year.
What the ad says
It begins with Mr. De Niro’s distinctive voice playing over images of Mr. Trump during the coronavirus pandemic and the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020.
“From midnight tweets to drinking bleach to tear gassing citizens to staging a photo op, we knew Trump was out of control when he was president,” De Niro says. “Then he lost the 2020 election — and went crazy.” (The bleach reference was a nod to Mr. Trump’s suggestion that an “injection” of a disinfectant into the body could help treat the coronavirus.)
The actor accuses Mr. Trump of being “desperate to stay in power,” threatening to rule as a “dictator” if he wins the 2024 election and wanting to “terminate the Constitution.”
The ad then shows a video of Mr. Trump speaking at a campaign event.
“If I am not elected, there will be a bloodbath,” says the former president.
What the ad should do
The Biden campaign believes voters are still aware that November’s election will be between Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump, two historically unpopular candidates.
On June 27, Americans will have their first big memory when Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump debate in Atlanta. The new ad is the first step in a months-long effort by the Biden campaign to set the narrative of this debate and make the election a referendum on Mr. Trump’s four years in office as much as Mr. Biden’s.
Jennifer O’Malley Dillon, Mr. Biden’s campaign manager, said in a memo about the De Niro ad that the Biden team would seek to define Mr. Trump as dangerous and unhinged.
“We will ensure that the voters who decide this election are reminded of the chaos and damage Trump wrought as president — and why they kicked him out four years ago,” Ms. O’Malley Dillon wrote and added that the choice between the two candidates “continues to crystallize for voters.”
She said the campaign will focus on three key issues ahead of the debate: abortion, democracy and economic justice. And she pointed out that it marks the anniversaries of the Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade on June 24 and the fatal shooting at the Pulse gay nightclub in Orlando on June 12, 2016.
Ms. O’Malley Dillon also tried to irritate Mr. Trump by suggesting he might not even show up for the debate.
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2024-05-24 16:41:14
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