Joe Biden may be bumbling in a Delaware basement, but his team has already launched the first stage of its general campaign. If its first two ads are any indication, Team Biden is ready for the big leagues.
First came a four-minute spot by Ronald Klain, Biden’s former chief of staff and the Obama administration’s Ebola czar. Although Klain did misrepresent the National Security Council’s pandemic preparedness restructuring under the Trump administration, the ad serves as a pretty cogent reminder that Biden is surrounded by experts with experience, a presence President Trump rarely welcomes.
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Everyone knows that we’re facing a real crisis from the coronavirus. But do you know how we got here and what we need to do next? Ron Klain, former White House Ebola Response Coordinator, breaks it down for us: pic.twitter.com/XRkIw2EzM4
— Joe Biden (Text Join to 30330) (@JoeBiden) March 21, 2020
But far more effective is Biden’s latest ad, which simply uses Trump’s own words against him.
In times of crisis, American presidents have always stepped up to meet the moment. But all we’ve gotten from Donald Trump are lies, excuses, and scapegoats.
Trump has failed our country at a time when we need him most. pic.twitter.com/d2vxUHGiH0
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) March 26, 2020
An election-year crisis can be a gift to a president if he is able to convince voters that they shouldn’t change horses midstream. But despite all of Trump’s bluster, he was slated to head into 2020 with a successful incumbent advantage. Prior to our vital decision to restrict social interactions severely, we had one of the strongest economies in a generation and relative peace abroad. The question on Election Day could have very well been, even if you dislike Trump on a personal level, do you really want to gamble that Biden won’t mess up Trump’s economic and foreign policy successes?
The coronavirus has thrown a wrench in all of that, threatening to turn the election into a referendum not on Trump’s actual governance but his personal failings in a time of crisis. Biden’s ad shows his team is enthusiastic to embrace this narrative, and Trump has to react accordingly.
The damage of Trump’s initial downplaying of the coronavirus has already been done, and it’s possible that a better-than-expected recovery could lessen its importance. But right now, as we all understand the gravity of the situation and the dire trade-offs it requires, Trump can change his behavior. He can stop joking about sitting senators not contracting the virus, and he can stop picking fights with journalists while millions of people are losing their jobs. He can stop directly contradicting medical experts while they’re 5 feet away from him at the press briefing podium, and he can stop tweeting.
The majority of the country may dislike Trump on a personal level, but from sky-high economic approval ratings to record personal satisfaction, polls made clear that most liked Trump’s world prior to the pandemic. And as the weight of the coronavirus sets in and the reaction becomes less partisan, approval of Trump’s handling of the crisis has risen. If he treats this crisis with the seriousness it deserves, it’s possible he remains mostly unscathed or even most powerful come November.
But not if ads like Biden’s keep the spotlight on Trump’s remarks — perhaps those numbers would begin to dip. Trump has benefited from the fact that the public has overwhelmingly disapproved of the media’s handling of the coronavirus, but Biden isn’t supposed to be a neutral actor. He’s a partisan campaigning for president, and if Trump gives Biden ready-made attack ads, clearly Biden knows how to use them. If Trump doesn’t temper his rhetoric and Biden can continue to blow up the narrative, those approval ratings might increase no longer.
