The two major presidential campaigns will get two hours of earned media during tonight’s CNN debate — and that doesn’t even count the hours surrogates will chew up during pregame shows and spin-room action after the fact.
But in case a viewer might miss their messaging, both the Donald Trump and Joe Biden operations will have TV ads and other efforts before, during and after the Battle of Atlanta hosted by “the most trusted name in cable news.”
Team Trump will be up officially with a pair of spots airing in “battleground states” and the decidedly not-battleground Washington, DC.
“‘Promises’ slams Crooked Joe Biden’s disastrous record that has destroyed the booming Trump economy, imported over 11 million unvetted illegals from all over the world into our country, destabilized America’s national security, and led to a surge in violent crime across our nation,” the Trump campaign contends in a communiqué to media.
The spot rebuts Biden’s on-stage promises, probing “four years of failure,” and includes a stentorian narrator urging viewers to consider that “no matter what Joe Biden said on the debate stage, ask yourself if you’re financially better off since he became president” in the first few seconds — a deliberate echo of Ronald Reagan’s timeless chestnut, “Are you better off now than you were four years ago?”
The other spot — “Who is laughing now?” — offers a similar post-closing argument.
It urges viewers to meditate on whether Biden can serve out his term if re-elected, with shots of presidential pratfalls over whimsical music not out of place in a farce.
“When you think about the Joe Biden you saw in the debate, ask yourself a question: Do you think the guy who was defeated by the stairs, got taken down by his bike, lost a fight with his jacket and regularly gets lost makes it four more years in the White House?”
The kicker comes when the narrator mockingly urges viewers to consider who is, per the media release, “waiting in the wings.”
“Vote Biden today, vote Kamala Harris tomorrow,” he says, offering a punchy reminder to viewers who may not believe the California Democrat is ready to lead the free world.
In addition to those two 30-second spots, Texas GOP Rep. Wesley Hunt’s Hellfire PAC has a 60-second ad airing on Fox News and CNN in the Atlanta, Philadelphia, Detroit, Charlotte, Milwaukee and Pittsburgh markets.
The targeted buy is deliberate, with Hunt’s political operation making the appeal to black voters in these swing states as he continues what has been a campaign of outreach on the former president’s behalf.
Biden’s “previous racist actions, statements, and policies” feature in the spot exploring what a narrator calls his “real record on race.”
It includes VP Harris attacking Biden on opposing busing and Biden saying he doesn’t have a “racist bone” in his body, before spotlighting his writing the 1994 Crime Bill that led to mass incarceration in the black community and praise for segregationist senators he worked with during his days as a transactional Blue Dog from Delaware.
“My state was a slave state,” Biden blurted in an interview to that end.
“Joe Biden’s political career is littered with racially insensitive comments, discriminatory policies, and self-lauded partnerships with segregationists,” said Hunt in a statement accompanying the spot. “And until she was chosen to be his running mate in 2020, Kamala Harris agreed.”
But viewers will see more than callbacks to Biden’s complicated history on race and questionable stewardship of the executive branch. The president’s campaign is coming out swinging at Trump as well, with what it calls a “seven-figure paid multimedia campaign that includes digital takeovers across eight news sites, digital ads across social media platforms, a full-page print ad across USA Today newspapers, a new website landing page, billboards, wrapped cars and trucks, and more.”
Visitors to BuzzFeed, USA Today, CNN, El Tiempo Latino, Telemundo, theGrio and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution will see the “takeover” bids that show the “dangers” of Trump. USA Today consumers will also get a full-page ad blasting the 45th president as a “self-centered criminal,” as the campaign continues to get mileage off Trump’s unprecedented legal difficulties.
Projected QR codes in Atlanta will focus on Project 2025, the conservative wish list Biden’s camp maligns as “dangerous plans to give [Trump] more power over Americans’ everyday lives if he wins.”
“Today’s show of force in Atlanta and across the battlegrounds emphasizes the two contrasting visions the American people will see on the debate stage tonight: between President Biden fighting for the American people, and Donald Trump, whose campaign is focused on benefiting one person only: himself,” remarks Biden-Harris 2024 senior spokesperson Kevin Munoz.
As the campaign heats up, we can expect more buys from both sides. But it’s clear both campaigns are comfortable with the themes they are using to define their opponents, reminding base voters what’s at stake in November.
