Former Vice President Joe Biden’s campaign used images of the riots that have recently roiled the country in his new digital campaign ad set to run in battleground states.
“I won’t traffic in fear or division. I won’t fan the flames of hate. I’ll seek to heal the racial wounds that have long plagued our country, not use them for political gain,” Biden says in his new ad, “Build the Future,” as a video of the violent Charlottesville rally in 2017 appears on the screen.
Along with a video from the Charlottesville rally, the ad uses images and videos from the riots that happened on Monday, where police and protesters had violent confrontations. The images and video run as Biden’s speech on the protests plays in the background.
The ad will run in the battleground states of Arizona, Florida, North Carolina, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. It seeks to reach out to young, diverse voters.
Biden uses violent police confrontations, video of the Charlottesville rally with a news clip of President Trump saying “both sides were violent in Virginia,” and video of Trump’s controversial walk to St. John’s Episcopal Church to attack the president.
The ad then changes tone to show Biden standing at a church and talking with protesters to paint himself as someone who can unite the country. “That’s what America does. We build a future. It may, in fact, be the most American thing to do. This is the United States of America. There’s never been anything we’ve been unable to do, and we set our mind to do it, and we’ve done it together,” Biden says in the ad.
This is being released as polls show battleground states are going to be a tight race in November.
