President Trump’s allies launched a string of attacks on Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s energy stance and other policies on Friday, saying the final debate offered them reams of tape to turn into adverts and hit lines.
The Trump campaign wasted no time, releasing a TV hit in Pennsylvania featuring Biden’s comments saying he would “transition” from the oil industry, while the Trump-supporting super PAC America First Action said it was going up with five 30-second videos across the nation in a $10 million buy.
Republican strategists praised Trump’s performance in Thursday’s debate, saying his more restrained approach let Biden do more talking than in their first clash.
And it was a welcome chance to get the former vice president out of his basement and on to the record in a campaign marked largely by his absence, said American Conservative Union chairman Matt Schlapp.
“Joe Biden has been able to get away with basically an actionless and speechless campaign. President Trump has been filling every void,” he said.
“What we saw last night was a rusty vice president who can’t answer basic questions on fracking, green new deal, domestic energy, oil and gas, his connections to China, what’s his relationship with the African-American community. There’s a lot there.”
Insiders said they were delighted with the way he set up Biden to expose his less popular policies in what amounted to a reversal from the first debate when Trump tried to hog the microphone.
“Instead of constantly interrupting Joe before he could put his foot in his mouth like he did at the first debate, he allowed Joe to talk and make damaging mistakes,” said a source close to the campaign. “Even more impressive, there were several instances, most notably on fossil fuels and fracking, where the president successfully set a trap that Joe walked right into.”
One of the key exchanges came during questions on climate change when Trump threw the conversation back to Biden.
“We’re going to have the greatest economy in the world, but if you want to kill the economy, get rid of your oil industry you want,” he said. “And what about fracking?”
It produced a testy back and forth that prompted Biden to explain that he wanted to “transition” from oil and gas to renewable energy. He set out a timeline that would see America’s energy industry become carbon neutral by 2025.
“Basically, what he’s saying is he is going to destroy the oil industry,” Trump responded. “Will you remember that Texas, will you remember that Pennsylvania, Oklahoma?”
The remarks were cut quickly into a new campaign ad, which featured “Jen,” a fracking technician describing how she was up early and out in the field every day.
“If Joe Biden’s elected, he’ll end fracking,” she said, before a clip of Biden saying he would transition from oil during the debate.
Kelly Sadler, of America First Action, said the president looked shocked that such an easy win had fallen in his lap during the debate. She said clips of Biden’s words would prove an effective weapon in the key swing state of Pennsylvania, home to thousands of jobs in fracking and related industries.
She said: “We will be pumping it out on social media and on our digital platform. In terms of TV advertising, we’ll have to wait and see.”
Senior campaign adviser Jason Miller said the stance would prove to be the nail in the coffin for Biden in the state.
“I think this is pretty startling, because we’ve already heard Joe Biden say previously he wants to end all fracking,” he said. “We’ve heard Joe Biden say that he wants to get rid of all fossil fuels. What we have not heard previously was this accelerated timetable for Joe Biden to say out loud, that he wants to get down to a net-zero emissions by going after energy production and doing that by 2025.”
