Biden releases first anti-Trump ad, hitting Trump's labor record ahead of Michigan visit
(CNN) — President Joe Biden's campaign is out with a new ad slamming Donald Trump's record with autoworkers ahead of Trump's visit to the battleground state of Michigan, underscoring how critical working-class voters will be in the upcoming presidential election, as the country gears up for a potential Trump-Biden rematch in 2024.
The 30-second ad is the campaign's first to directly attack Trump, the front-runner in the GOP presidential primary race, and will air nationally on cable networks as well as Michigan, specifically.
Titled "Delivers," the ad shows pictures of Trump golfing while a narrator claims that the former president "passed tax breaks for his rich friends while automakers shuttered their plants and Michigan lost manufacturing jobs."
"Manufacturing is coming back to Michigan because Joe Biden doesn't just talk, he delivers."
The ad is being released just a day after the president joined autoworkers on the picket line in Van Buren Township on Tuesday, Sept. 26.
This is the first time a sitting president has joined a picket line.
Here's what Biden had to say to UAW members:
Biden, who calls himself the most pro-union president, says autoworkers deserve a fair share of the Big Three's earnings.
He arrived in Michigan on the 12th day of the UAW strikes against General Motors, Ford and Stellantis after they failed to reach an agreement with the union before contracts expired on Thursday, Sept. 14, at 11:59 p.m.
The union's demands include a 36% increase in pay, a four-day work week and better benefits.
In addition, the ad is being released as Trump is scheduled to visit Michigan on Wednesday, Sept. 27, to give a speech.
He will be skipping the second GOP presidential debate to visit the battleground speech.
It will also run on Fox Business ahead of Wednesday's debate.
The ad is part of a $25 million television and digital ad campaign in battleground states first reported by CNN last month.
The ads seek to highlight the impact of the president's legislative accomplishments, including the Inflation Reduction Act, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the CHIPS and Science Act and the American Rescue Plan, with nods to the progress made since the Covid-19 pandemic initially cratered the economy.
Biden has sought to frame his campaign as a battle against Republican extremism. His launch video criticized "MAGA extremism," in an effort to highlight the hold Trump has on the Republican party.
Biden's ad push will run on broadcast and cable television in the battleground states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, officials said.
The campaign is also placing ads in Hispanic and African American media in each of these states – as well as a targeted buy to reach Hispanic voters in Florida – as they look to court key voting blocs ahead of the 2024 election. This represents the largest and earliest buy a re-election campaign has ever placed in Hispanic and African American media outlets, a campaign official says, along with the largest overall buy for a re-election at this point in the cycle.
"More empty promises in Michigan or anywhere else can't erase Donald Trump's egregious failures and broken promises to America's workers," said Kevin Munoz, Biden-Harris 2024 campaign spokesperson. "He can't hide his anti-labor, anti-jobs record from the countless American workers he's let down. This election will be a choice between a real advocate for working Americans and a rerun of billionaire Donald Trump's broken promises to the middle class."
Biden is increasingly looking past the Republican primary to focus on Trump as his 2024 challenger, including during remarks behind closed doors to donors. In the past week, he has accused Trump of trying to destroy democracy in fundraiser remarks, a sentiment he's expected to take public in the coming days.