The Biden campaign is going after Donald Trump as a convicted felon as they prepare for the successful first presidential debate — but some believe focusing too much on his criminal conviction could backfire.
On Monday, Biden’s team announced a new ad titled ‘Character is important’ as part of a $50 million advertising blitz for the month of June. The ad will run in battleground states.
At the 30-second mark, the narrator directly targets Trump for his criminal status and civil cases, while contrasting him with Biden.
‘In the courtroom we see Donald Trump for who he is. He was convicted of 34 crimes, found liable for sexual assault and committed financial fraud,” the narrator says as images of Trump in court play across the screen.
Then Biden is touted to lower health care costs and make big corporations pay.
The Biden campaign released an ad ahead of the first debate titled “Character Matters,” which focuses on Trump’s criminal conviction. It’s part of June’s $50 million ad spend targeting voters in battleground states
“This election is between a convicted criminal who is only out for himself and a president who fights for your family,” the narrator says.
Trump was convicted by a New York jury in April of falsifying company records to cover up a payment to porn star Stormy Daniels to keep her quiet before the 2016 election.
He was also found liable for sexually assaulting columnist E. Jean Carroll and was ordered to pay more than $83 million in damages and for committing fraud by inflating the value of assets for years to get better loan terms .
President Biden and Donald Trump will meet during the first presidential debate on June 27 in Atlanta
“Trump approaches the first debate like a convicted felon who continues to prove that he will do anything and harm anyone if it means more power and revenge for Donald Trump,” said Michael Tyler, communications director for the Biden campaign.
“That’s why he was convicted, that’s why he encouraged a violent mob to storm the Capitol on January 6, and that’s why his entire campaign is an exercise in revenge and retaliation,” Tyler continued.
Despite the conviction and other criminal cases against him, opinion polls show an extremely close presidential race, in which the debate performances could be make or break for either man.
The new Biden ad highlights Trump’s criminal conviction in New York and liability in two civil cases filed against him.
Biden’s ‘Character Matters’ ad aims to contrast Trump while still touting Biden’s priorities of cutting costs and making companies pay’
Trump’s guilty verdict has also become a rallying cry for supporters of the Republican presumptive presidential nominee.
At Trump campaign events, his loyal followers dismiss the conviction and other accusations, proudly declaring that they will “vote for the felon.”
They wear T-shirts and hold signs bearing his mugshot from the criminal election interference case in Georgia.
Some strategists believe Biden and Democrats calling Trump a convicted felon is playing right into the ex-president’s hands.
It makes it easier for Trump to argue that Biden used the legal system as a weapon to interfere in the election, Republican strategist Matt Wolking told DailyMail.com.
“While the Republican Party is enthusiastic, low propensity voters are still focused on their economic self-interest,” said strategist Leslie Sanchez, pointing to high prices and inflation.
A Trump supporter holding a sign of the ex-president’s mugshot outside Manhattan Criminal Court on the day he was convicted on 34 counts of falsifying corporate records
After the conviction in New York, Trump’s campaign said it had raised more than $50 million in 24 hours for his re-election bid.
Trump had been trailing Biden in fundraising for months, but the Trump campaign announced last month that it had surpassed the president’s fundraising totals. Federal election records will be released later this month.
While the conviction led to a fundraising windfall and the anger of his loyal base, polls following the guilty verdict produced mixed results for the ex-president.
In an election where most base voters are made up, 21 percent of independents say Trump’s conviction on charges of falsifying business records makes them less likely to support him.
Only 5 percent of independents say they are more likely to support him, according to a new Politico/Ipsos survey.
But Trump’s attacks on prosecutors also appear to have sunk in.
While 51 percent do not believe that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg filed the charges in the Stormy Daniels case to gain political advantage for Biden, 43 percent believe he did.
Among crucial independents, 50 percent do not believe the charges were intended to help Biden gain a political advantage, but 44 percent do believe Trump was prosecuted to help Biden, something Trump’s team has been harping on before the guilty verdict fell.