The Biden campaign on Monday released ads in battleground states slamming former President Trump as a “convicted felon,” highlighting his numerous legal troubles and recent felony conviction in New York state.
The ad, titled “Character Matters,” will air on general TV and national cable in battleground states as part of a $50 million paid media campaign that will run through June, just under two weeks before the first debate between Biden and Trump.
“In court, the true character of Donald Trump will be revealed: he was convicted of 34 felony counts, charged with sexual assault, and committed financial fraud,” the narrator says. 30-second ad As footage of Trump in a New York courtroom plays.
“Meanwhile, Joe Biden has worked to cut health care costs and make big corporations pay their fair share. This election is between a convicted felon who only thinks about himself and a president who is fighting for your families,” the ad concludes.
The ad marks one of the Biden campaign’s most aggressive efforts yet to attack Trump, who was convicted of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records after a weeks-long trial in Manhattan.
The announcement comes as Biden and Trump are set to face off in the first presidential debate scheduled for June 27. The debate will be hosted by CNN in Atlanta.
“He comes to the first debate as a convicted felon who continues to prove he will do anything and harm anyone to bring more power and more revenge to Donald Trump,” Biden campaign communications director Michael Tyler said in a statement.
“That’s why he was convicted, why he incited a mob to storm the Capitol on January 6th, and why his entire campaign has been an exercise in revenge and retribution, because he has no idea about the people a president is supposed to serve and will do anything for his own profit and power,” Tyler added.
Trump has slammed the justice system amid his numerous legal troubles and claims the Biden administration is orchestrating them to hurt him politically ahead of November. There is no evidence the White House played a role in the various lawsuits against Trump.
In addition to the New York conviction, a New York judge ordered Trump to pay about $355 million in a civil fraud case after a jury found that Trump sexually abused author E. Jean Carroll in the mid-1990s and later defamed her by denying her allegations.
President Trump still faces criminal charges in Washington, DC, Florida and Georgia, but none of the cases seem likely to go to trial before November.
President Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, was convicted last week of three felony counts of lying about illegal drug use when obtaining a gun in 2018 and then illegally possessing a firearm for 11 days.
The Trump campaign has dismissed Hunter Biden’s conviction as a “distraction” from corruption allegations against the Biden family.
