Donald Trump’s campaign released what was described as a misleading ad targeting Joe Biden on Thursday. The effort was reportedly an attempt to pressure Twitter and draw attention to what the campaign believed was a double standard.
As The Hill noted, the ad was styled after one released by the Democratic super PAC Priorities USA that featured audio of Trump describing the attention around the coronavirus as a “hoax.” It included a number of different statements by the president where he downplayed the initial spread of the virus, overlaid against a graph showing the sharp rises in cases across the United States.
Business Insider reported that Trump’s campaign took issue with the ad, calling on media outlets to reject it and claiming that the stitched-together audio was sketchy. Furthermore, it was claimed that the president was saying the politicization of the coronavirus was the “hoax,” not the virus itself.
“Because PUSA’s ad’s central point is deliberately false and misleading, your station has an obligation to cease and desist from airing it immediately to comply with FCC licensing requirements, to serve the public interest, and to avoid costly and time-consuming litigation,” the campaign said in a letter to outlets airing the clip.
The Trump campaign also flagged the ads as misleading on Twitter, but the site did not take them down. It then appeared to ramp up the pressure this week by publishing an ad with seemingly manipulated video — making it appear as if Biden was downplaying the virus.
The media is giving a pass to a pro-Biden TV ad that doctors and deceptively edits audio of President Trump, even though every independent fact checker said President Trump DID NOT call the coronavirus a hoax.
Joe Biden, on the other hand? This sounds authentic… pic.twitter.com/YY6vN5gTM6
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) April 2, 2020
“The coronavirus is a hoax,” Biden’s voice could be heard saying in audio taken from two different times that he spoke.
The Trump campaign released a statement along with the ad, saying it was hoping to use the video against Biden to force the issue and make Twitter take down the ads aimed at the president.
“This tweet forces the issue and makes Twitter decide,” a spokesperson for Trump’s campaign said. “It can enforce its arbitrary rules fairly and equally, or it can have its policy exposed as totally ineffective or a partisan sham. It’s their move.”
Trump refused to take the threat of the coronavirus seriously, now he won’t take responsibility as his administration has been totally unprepared for this crisis. pic.twitter.com/Jdh1GY9HHS
— Priorities USA (@prioritiesUSA) March 23, 2020
Trump has been widely criticized for his early actions downplaying the spread of the coronavirus, including a prediction at the time there were 15 confirmed instances of COVID-19 that the number of cases would soon be going down to zero. He has since adopted a more serious and somber tone, noting that projections show between 100,000 and 200,000 Americans could die from the coronavirus and calling for nationwide restrictions to at least last through April.
