MANCHESTER, New Hampshire — After a week of testing tougher rhetoric on the campaign trail, Joe Biden’s team released an ad punching Pete Buttigieg three days before the New Hampshire primary.
“We’re electing a president. What you’ve done matters,” the narrator says.
The 90-second digital ad paints Buttigieg, 38, as a critic of former President Barack Obama, while tying Biden, 77, Obama’s No. 2 to the administration’s achievements, including Obamacare, the Iran nuclear deal, and reinvigorating the economy.
The spot also pegs the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, as the city executive of a small town, showcasing his work installing decorative lights, licensing pet chip scanners, and fixing sidewalks.
Former Mayor Pete doesn’t think very highly of the Obama-Biden record. Let’s compare. pic.twitter.com/132TB7MHaq
— Joe Biden (Text Join to 30330) (@JoeBiden) February 8, 2020
Biden, on the heels of a weak fourth-place finish in Iowa, went on the offensive this week against the winners of the first-in-the-nation caucuses, Buttigieg and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, 78. The former vice president called the untested Buttigieg a “risk” at a rally in Somersworth, following up the hit with a tweet.
“Mayor Pete likes to call me part of the old failed Washington. Was it a failure when I helped pass Obamacare, the Paris Agreement, the Violence Against Women Act, or the assault weapons ban?” he wrote.
Mayor Pete likes to call me part of the old failed Washington. Was it a failure when I helped pass Obamacare, the Paris Agreement, the Violence Against Women Act, or the assault weapons ban?
I have a stronger record of passing big, progressive legislation than anyone running.
— Joe Biden (Text Join to 30330) (@JoeBiden) February 5, 2020
He reiterated the sentiment at the New Hampshire debate, describing Buttigieg as a “mayor of a small city.” South Bend’s population is just under 102,000.
In response, Buttigieg’s national press secretary Chris Meagher said in a statement that “Pete’s on the ground experience as mayor, turning around a Midwestern industrial city, is exactly why he is running for president.”
“The vice president’s decision to run this ad speaks more to where he currently stands in this race than it does about Pete’s perspective as a mayor and veteran,” Meagher wrote.
Biden’s spot comes after rival Tom Steyer, 62, released the primary cycle’s first attack ad, jabbing at Delaware’s senator for 36 years, as well as Buttigieg and Sanders.
Buttigieg is surging in New Hampshire off of his performance in Iowa ahead of the primary election on Tuesday. Meanwhile, Biden is bracing for “a hit” before he hopes to regain momentum for his presidential campaign in the coming contests in Nevada on Feb. 22 and South Carolina on Feb. 29.
