Although Joe Biden’s campaign and its allies are launching ads attacking the White House over its response to the coronavirus pandemic, President Trump’s reelection committee is turning the tables on the presumptive Democratic nominee by tying him to the Obama administration’s anti-virus record.
A Thursday Trump campaign news release placed blame on the nationwide shortage of N95 protective masks on the Obama administration, singling out the two-term vice president. Citing reports from two news outlets, the Trump campaign pointed to decisions by the Obama administration that “significantly depleted” the nation’s mask supply.
“The Obama-Biden Administration would have also been aware of warnings regarding the lack of ventilators,” the campaign said. “Joe Biden could have heeded these longstanding warnings when he was in office. He failed to.”
The coronavirus crisis quickly became part of the presidential campaign as the virus spread globally and in the United States, forcing millions into stay-at-home conditions.
On Wednesday, the Trump campaign sent cease-and-desist letters to television stations airing a campaign ad featuring clips of the president remarking on the coronavirus. The ad, launched by the anti-Trump independent group Priorities Action Fund, is in violation of Federal Communications Commission regulations, the Trump campaign said.
The ad contains the false assertion that President Trump called the coronavirus a “hoax,” when he was referring to Democratic criticisms and politicization of the federal response to the public health crisis, the campaign said, in demanding television stations stop running the spot.
That same day, the Trump campaign targeted a response Biden gave during a press briefing. In answer to a report, Biden said Congress could use the next round of stimulus bills as an opportunity for “my Green Deal.”
“Joe Biden would use the Chinese coronavirus crisis as an opportunity to cram the Green New Deal down Americans’ throats,” Tim Murtaugh, Trump 2020 communications director, said. “This terrible idea would impose massive regulations on businesses and people at the worst time imaginable and would jack up their heating and cooling bills on top of it.”
The latest push by Trump’s campaign comes as the president enjoys record approval ratings nationally and an edge over Biden in key swing states. A YouGov survey released Tuesday found Trump’s approval rating at 47%, a record for him with that organization. Another poll from the Hill had 50% of the country approving his job, with 50% disapproving.
Biden still averages 7 points above Trump nationally, according to RealClearPolitics, but a Monmouth poll released this week found Biden’s lead cut down to 3 points. In the swing state of Wisconsin, the average of recent polls now has the two candidates tied.
