Trump campaign spotlights handling of coronavirus in first big TV ad blitz

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Trump: 'Isn't any question' that China misled global community on COVID-19

President Trump answers a viewer question on the global response to China's handling of the coronavirus pandemic at Fox News' virtual town hall.

President Trump’s re-election campaign is up with their first major TV ad blitz of the 2020 general election – with a spot titled "American Comeback" that touts the job the president’s doing combating the coronavirus pandemic.

The commercial includes a clip of Trump declaring during his State of the Union Address in early February that “my administration will take all necessary steps to safeguard our citizens from this threat.” And the ad uses clips from two top Democratic governors – Andrew Cuomo of New York and Gavin Newsom of California – complimenting the president.

“What the federal government did was a phenomenal accomplishment,” Cuomo says.

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The spot also highlights the president’s vow to restart the economy, using a soundbite of the Republican incumbent saying “we built the greatest economy the world has ever seen and we’re going to do it again.”

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The commercial highlights the Trump campaign’s argument that the president’s handling of the coronavirus crisis has unfairly been mocked and attacked by the mainstream media and his Democratic challenger in the general election, former Vice President Joe Biden.

The ad first appeared Sunday night during a Fox News town hall with the president and will run the next two days on Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, and some broadcast TV stations. The Trump campaign says it's spending in the mid-seven figures to run the ads.

The Trump campaign’s blitz comes as the latest national and key battleground state surveys show him trailing Biden in general election matchups.

The two major Pro-Biden super PACs for weeks have been running TV spots in the battleground states that criticize the president for originally downplaying the severity of the outbreak and slam his handling of the crisis. Priorities USA – the leading outside group backing Biden – went up with a new commercial last week that charges that “Donald Trump is failing America” over the pandemic.

The Trump campaign push also comes after the Republican National Committee went up with a $1 million ad buy to run digital spots in battleground states praising the president’s performance.

At the same time, the top pro-Trump super PAC is spending $10 million to run TV commercials slamming Biden. The spots by America First Action Super PAC argue that the former vice president is soft on China, where the coronavirus originated. Those ads were quickly rebutted by a commercial from the pro-Biden group American Bridge that used clips of Trump from January and February praising Beijing’s response to the coronavirus.

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Republican sources told Fox News last week that a second round of Trump campaign ads will accentuate their theme that for decades – first as a senator and then as vice president – Biden was cozy with Beijing. The attacks come as public opinion polling shows an increasing percentage of Americans angry at China’s handing of the coronavirus outbreak.