New attack ads preview Biden-Trump war on China
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[April 17, 2020]
By Trevor Hunnicutt
(Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump's
allies previewed a likely battle in the upcoming election on Thursday,
unveiling new attack ads against Joe Biden's views on China before the
coronavirus crisis.
New advertisements hitting three critical battleground states cast Biden
as friendly to China while highlighting Trump's decision in January to
ban travel from China after the country's coronavirus outbreak.
"Now more than ever, America must stop China," a narrator intones over
menacing music as a Chinese flag waves on screen. "And to stop China,
you have to stop Joe Biden."
Some $10 million in the "Beijing Biden" ads are being rolled out by the
Trump-allied political group America First Action PAC in Pennsylvania,
Michigan and Wisconsin, three swing states viewed as critical to Trump's
re-election strategy.
The group's president, Brian Walsh, said in a statement that Biden is "a
pro-China globalist running for President promising to fix the problems
he helped create." Trump's campaign is expected to mine their opponent's
nearly five-decade record on China as a senator, vice president and
presidential candidate for attacks going forward.
It is a fight Biden's allies welcome as they increasingly expect Nov. 3
election's to be a fight about Trump's reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic
that first emerged in China but has now killed over 31,000 people in the
United States, more than in any other nation.
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Democratic U.S. presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe
Biden speaks during the 11th Democratic candidates debate of the
2020 U.S. presidential campaign, held in CNN's Washington studios
without an audience because of the global coronavirus pandemic, in
Washington, U.S., March 15, 2020. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo
Trump has made a tough-on-China trade policy a centerpiece of his
political campaign. He has also faced criticism for earlier public
statements downplaying the coronavirus crisis and praising the
response of Chinese President Xi Jinping.
"Trump spent vital weeks praising China's response as successful and
transparent while deceiving the American people about the extreme
threat we faced and failing to prepare our country," said Biden
campaign spokesman Andrew Bates in an emailed statement. "China
played Donald Trump for a sucker, and now all of us are paying an
atrocious price for his malpractice."
(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt in New York; editing by Jonathan
Oatis)
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