Democratic nominee Joe Biden garnered dozens of good headlines for himself when his campaign said they’d suspend negative ads against President Donald Trump following his positive COVID-19 test.
“We think it’s inappropriate to use the president’s illness to score political points on our opponent, which is why we unilaterally took down our negative ads,” said Biden campaign national press secretary T.J. Ducklo.
However, Team Biden still continued to run negative ads against the president and speak negatively about him on the campaign trail, according to a Fox News report.
Team Biden has said taking down the ads is “not like flipping a switch,” suggesting some of the negative ads still up are simply up because of a lag. However, the Biden camp is also defending some of the attacks ads, suggesting they are “factual” and not “negative.”
“Despite pledging to stop his negative advertising, nearly 100 negative Biden ads slandering the president and lying about his record have aired today while the president is at Walter Reed,” Andrew Clark, Trump 2020 Campaign rapid response director, told Fox News. “Meanwhile, Joe Biden has continued to attack the president in his speeches.”
“The Biden campaign tried to trick reporters into thinking they’re the ‘good guys’ and score some good headlines and tweets while doing nothing to tone down their viciousness,” Clark added. “They lied to the media and got caught.”
Attack ads against Trump were still airing while he was being treated at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Fox News outlined:
” … in Raleigh, N.C., Biden’s ad accusing Trump of planning to wipe out Social Security within three years was still on the air. In Charlotte, N.C., on Saturday, Biden was still on the airwaves blasting Trump’s handling of the coronavirus, saying it’s ‘unforgivable’ that Trump ‘failed to protect America.'”
“Overnight in Las Vegas on Saturday, a Biden ad aired that hit Trump on his ‘tax cut giveaway’ and declared ‘Donald Trump is lying again” about Biden’s tax proposal.'”
[…]
“And in many media markets Saturday, including Manchester, N.H.; Orlando, Fla.; and Minneapolis, Biden is airing an ad that talks about how health care is personal to him in the context of the auto crash in 1972 that killed his wife Neilia and daughter Naomi, as well as his son Beau’s death from cancer in 2015.”
“‘When I see the president of the United States try to eliminate this health care in the middle of a public health crisis, that’s personal to me too,’ Biden says in the ad.”
While Trump was hospitalized Saturday, Biden attacked the president’s handling of the coronavirus while he was out on the campaign trail.
“Biden said he was ‘in a little bit of a spot here’ because he didn’t want to attack the president and first lady, but went on to criticize Trump’s response to the pandemic as ‘unconscionable’ and blasted Trump’s ‘It is what it is’ remark about the death toll,” Fox reported.
Biden blasted Trump, “I find this one of the most despicable things that I’ve encountered in my whole career.”
Read the full report here.