Local News

Biden's Campaign To Run Ad In Ohio Seizing On Trump's Goodyear Comments

August 23, 2020 / 3:58 PM EDT / CBS Pittsburgh

By Sarah Mucha, CNN

(CNN) -- Joe Biden's presidential campaign is launching an ad Monday seizing on President Donald Trump's comments calling for a boycott of Goodyear tires that will play in the battleground states of Ohio and North Carolina -- states the President won in 2016.

The ad attempts to paint Trump as a leader who is interested only in personal gain.

"An American company with a 122-year history, thousands of American workers and competitors, all over the world," a narrator says, "and a sitting President who's spinning out of control would risk American jobs to try to save his own."

Two versions of the ad, viewed first by CNN, will play on both television and YouTube concentrating in areas near the tire company's headquarters in Akron, Ohio, and a manufacturing plant in Fayetteville, North Carolina. The Ohio ad features a quote from Akron Mayor Dan Horrigan.

"When you come after Goodyear, you're coming after Akron," Horrigan said. The paid media highlights a pointed effort on the part of the Biden campaign to make inroads in key states where Trump bested Hillary Clinton in 2016.

There was no clear leader in either state in two recent CBS News polls conducted in late July, which showed Biden at 45% to Trump's 46% in Ohio and up 48% to the president's 44% in North Carolina.

Last week, Trump called on his followers to not buy Goodyear tires after an employee posted a viral photo of a company policy banning "Make America Great Again" and other political attire in the workplace. Trump also threatened to remove the company's tires from his custom presidential limousine.

"Don't buy GOODYEAR TIRES - They announced a BAN ON MAGA HATS. Get better tires for far less! (This is what the Radical Left Democrats do. Two can play the same game, and we have to start playing it now!)," Trump tweeted.

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Goodyear said in a statement after the President's tweet that "the visual in question was not created or distributed by Goodyear corporate," but that it asks its associates to "refrain from workplace expressions in support of political campaigning for any candidate or political party, as well as similar forms of advocacy that fall outside the scope of racial justice and equity issues."

The company also stated that it has "always wholeheartedly supported both equality and law enforcement and will continue to do so."

Biden blasted the President's comments at the time, saying that the factory workers aren't a "source of pride" to Trump.

"Goodyear employs thousands of American workers, including in Ohio where it is headquartered," Biden said in a statement after Trump's comments. "To President Trump, those workers and their jobs aren't a source of pride, just collateral damage in yet another one of his political attacks."

Biden continued to tout the importance of union jobs.

"President Trump doesn't have a clue about the dignity and worth that comes with good-paying union jobs at places like Goodyear — jobs that can support a family and sustain a community," he said, accusing the President of "taking his eyes off the ball."

The ad is part of the Biden campaign's $26 million ongoing national paid media investment across television, radio, and digital.