Ads targeting President Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic are set to flood the airwaves of swing states starting Tuesday.
The Lincoln Project, led by a group of Republicans and independents critical of Trump, expanded buys for its signature ad Mourning in America, which depicts the economic and public health devastation brought by the coronavirus. The ad blames Trump’s leadership for the job losses and economic hardship faced by people in the United States due to the pandemic.
Mourning in America plays on a 1984 Ronald Reagan ad called Morning in America, which depicts the country prospering economically.
The ad has reached more than 20 million voters and has been the subject of scorn by Trump. The ad will hit voters in Naples, Florida, and Columbus, Ohio, as well as Wausau and La Crosse in Wisconsin.
The Lincoln Project is founded by several longtime political strategists and consultants, including Rick Wilson, the author of Everything Trump Touches Dies, and George Conway, a New York City-based lawyer and the husband of Kellyanne Conway.
Trump blasted the group in a series of tweets earlier this month, calling them “RINO Republicans” who lost their attempts to beat President Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012.
“I didn’t use any of them because they don’t know how to win, and their so-called Lincoln Project is a disgrace to Honest Abe,” Trump said in a thread of tweets.
Kellyanne Conway also hit back at the group, saying none of them have experienced the success she’s had with the Trump campaign.
“They’ve all failed,” she said earlier this month on Fox News. “They never succeeded the way I did as campaign manager, and they never got their candidate where my candidate got. He’s president of the United States.”
