Biden campaign targets ‘convicted felon’ Trump with $50M media buy ahead of 1st debate

The Biden campaign released a new ad Monday morning as part of a $50 million ad blitz ahead of the first presidential debate later this month, highlighting former President Trump’s conviction, and saying “character” is the central dynamic of the 2024 presidential race. 

The new ad, titled “Character Matters,” highlights the verdict in New York v. Trump, when a jury found the former president and presumptive Republican nominee guilty on all 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree. Trump pleaded not guilty to the charges and has vowed to appeal the decision. 

President Biden waves as he arrives, Saturday, June 15, 2024, in Los Angeles, where he attended a campaign event. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

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“This election is between a convicted criminal who is only out for himself, and a president who is fighting for your family,” the ad says, highlighting Trump’s legal challenges and saying the president has been focusing on “lowering health care costs and making big corporations pay their fair share.” 

The ad comes ahead of next week’s first presidential debate, which is set for June 27. 

The ad is part of the Biden campaign’s June $50 million paid media campaign. The campaign said the ad will run on general market television and Connected TV in all battleground states and on national cable.

Former President Trump, left, and President Biden. (Getty Images)

“Trump approaches the first debate as a convicted felon who continues to prove that he will do anything and harm anyone if it means more power and vengeance for Donald Trump,” Biden campaign communications director Michael Tyler said. “That’s why he was convicted, that’s why he encouraged a violent mob to storm the Capitol on January 6, and it’s why his entire campaign is an exercise in revenge and retribution; because that man is blind to the people a president should be serving and will do absolutely anything for his own personal gain and for his own power.” 

Tyler stressed that, in the 2024 presidential campaign, “character matters, and the President of the United States should be someone who understands that the highest office in the land is about you and your family – not a vehicle to enrich yourself.” 

President Biden, left, and actor George Clooney. (AP/Getty)

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“That is the ethos Joe Biden puts into the job every day: to fight for safer communities, for the middle class, and to ensure that corporations are paying their fair share. It’s a stark contrast, and it’s one that matters deeply to the American people,” he said. “And it’s why we will make sure that every single day we are reminding voters about how Joe Biden is fighting for them, while Donald Trump runs a campaign focused on one man and one man only: himself.”

The Biden campaign on Monday also said the media campaign will target voters in battleground states for June as part of its “aggressive and comprehensive efforts to engage and activate voters who will decide this election.”

The ad blitz also includes a “historic” investment to reach Black, Latino, and Asian American and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander voters, with the campaign calling it the “largest investments to date.” 

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The ad campaign comes after the Biden campaign raised a record $30 million at a star-studded fundraiser in Los Angeles hosted by Jimmy Kimmel. Big names, including former President Obama and Hollywood actors George Clooney and Julia Roberts, were in attendance. 

The massive haul comes after Biden attended a star-studded fundraiser in New York City in April, where he raised more than $25 million. 

Meanwhile, the first presidential debate will be hosted by CNN on June 27 in Atlanta.