Biden Ad in Spanish Emphasizes Character: Campaign Update
Pence Beefs With Harris Over Red Meat: Campaign Update
(Bloomberg) -- Joe Biden is fighting a character campaign with Spanish ad. President Donald Trump will be traveling near Biden’s birthplace, just in time for the Democratic convention. And a federal building will serve as a hub during the Republican National Convention.
There are 81 days until the election.
Other Developments:
Biden Launches Character Campaign in Spanish Ad
Biden kept up his effort to make the presidential campaign about character and this time, he’s doing it in Spanish.
The new Spanish-language television ad, which debuted Friday in Florida, is heavy on themes of family and faith as it works to contrast Biden with Trump.
“A good man is one who travels four hours by train every day to have breakfast with his family,” the narrator says. A good man is “one who gives his life to service” and is “worried about welfare of the most vulnerable.”
The visuals contrast Biden at an Ash Wednesday service and attending a funeral with Trump holding a Bible in front of St. John’s Episcopal Church in Washington during Black Lives Matter protests.
As of Tuesday, the Biden campaign had spent $601,478 on Spanish-language ads, less than the Trump campaign’s $656,012, according to Advertising Analytics. -- Gregory Korte
Trump to Travel Near Biden Birthplace During Democratic Convention (1:53 p.m.)
Trump and Pence will make some rather pointed trips during the Democratic National Convention next week.
As counterprogramming to the convention, Trump will visit the battleground states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Arizona and Pennsylvania.
On Monday, the day the convention begins, Trump will visit Mankato, Minnesota, and Oshkosh, Wisconsin, putting him in the state where Democrats had planned to hold their convention before the coronavirus pandemic.
On Wednesday, the day Kamala Harris accepts the vice presidential nomination, Pence will also be in Wisconsin.
And on Thursday, the day Biden accepts the nomination, Trump will visit a suburb just outside Scranton, Pennsylvania, the oft-cited childhood home of the Democratic nominee.
Trump often holds rallies or events at the same time his rivals are hoping for TV attention such as debate nights and election days during the Democratic primary. -- Jennifer Jacobs
GOP Convention Set for Federal Building Near Trump Hotel (12:24 p.m.)
A federal government building near the Trump International Hotel in Washington will serve as a central hub for the Republican National Convention.
The historic Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium will be a hub for speakers and other in-person activities during the convention, according to a person familiar with planning.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the convention will feature a mix of virtual and in-person activities from Washington, places around the country and the original location in Charlotte, North Carolina, where a few hundred delegates will still gather.
Trump has said that he will give his acceptance speech from the White House lawn, a move Democrats criticized as running afoul of ethics rules about the use of government property. A federal legal opinion issued this week cleared that move, but holding other events in the Mellon Auditorium is also drawing concern from congressional Democrats because it is near the Trump International Hotel.
Trump has faced multiple lawsuits over the Trump Organization’s management of the hotel, which is leased from the federal government. -- Mario Parker
Gardner Leaves Colorado Out of Latest Ad (11:33 a.m.)
A Republican senator facing a tough re-election is making clear he is standing with Trump and he wants voters to know it -- just not necessarily the voters in his own state.
In a Facebook ad first flagged by the HuffPost, Colorado Senator Cory Gardner asks “patriots nationwide to show that they support the pro-growth, conservative agenda that President Trump and I are fighting for” by signing a petition.
But “nationwide” does not seem to include Colorado, where the ad was shown less than 1% of the time -- a likely signal that the state was excluded when setting up the ad’s targeting.
The same is true for other ads featuring Trump, including one that notes that the president is holding “battleground rallies in several key states, including Colorado” and asks voters to sign a petition showing their support. The ads that Coloradans are seeing, meantime, feature Gardner talking about his authorship of the Great American Outdoors Act.
Gardner is one of several Republican incumbents from Democratic-trending states who are having to walk a fine line between not offending Trump supporters in their own party while wooing independents and crossover support from Democrats.
Democrats Send Messages With Convention Entertainers (10:13 a.m.)
The Democrats announced the entertainers for their virtual convention next week and the list sends a clear anti-Trump message.
Crooner John Legend has been a regular Trump antagonist in recent years, along with his wife Chrissy Teigen, calling him a “cancer” and “an embarrassment to the country.” Trump, in turn, called Legend “boring” and Teigen “filthy mouthed.”
The rapper Common once said Trump could use therapy. Leon Bridges mocked Trump by singing his tweets on “Jimmy Kimmel Live.” Singer-songwriter Billie Eilish, who at 18 will be eligible to vote for the first time, responded to Trump’s tweets about protests in Minneapolis with a curse-filled Instagram post and has called him “stupid.”
Folk-rocker Stephen Stills wrote “Look Each Other in the Eye” in 2016, describing Trump as a candidate who’s always “looking in the mirror” and “dialing up the hate.” Singer-songwriter Maggie Rogers has said her song “Hashtag,” with lyrics about being “drenched in grief,” is about the day Trump won in 2016.
The Chicks, who as the Dixie Chicks famously criticized President George W. Bush in the run-up to the Iraq War, will also perform. Lead singer, Natalie Maines, said their song “Gaslighter,” about a liar and cheater, was not written about Trump, but “I see Trump in it.”
Pence Beefs With Harris Over Red Meat (6:32 a.m.)
When Beef Magazine wrote up Biden’s selection of Kamala Harris as his running mate, the very first thing it noted was her support for cutting back on red meat consumption.
At a town hall on climate change during the Democratic primary, Harris said the federal government should recommend people eat less red meat to combat climate change.
Now, the Trump campaign hopes ranchers have a cow about the remark.
“Kamala Harris said she would change the dietary guidelines of this country to reduce the amount of red meat Americans can eat,” Pence said in Iowa on Thursday, according to CBS. “Well, I’ve got some red meat for ya, we’re not going to let Joe Biden and Kamala Harris cut America’s meat.”
Trump also has asked where’s the beef if Biden wins, arguing during a Fox Business interview Thursday that “they don’t want to have cows” -- a claim he’s often made about the Green New Deal, which Biden did not endorse and Harris supported in the primary, based on a fact sheet.
Biden Leads by 19 Points Among ‘Double Haters’
Biden has a substantial lead over Trump in a key 2016 demographic: people who dislike both candidates.
These voters, who Trump’s data team called “double haters,” went for Trump over Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton by 30 points in 2016, according to exit polls.
In an NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll released Friday, they backed Biden by 19 points.
In the poll, 52% of people who said they dislike both Biden and Trump supported the Democratic nominee, while just 33% supported the president.
The survey of 1,118 registered voters was conducted Aug. 3-11. It has a margin of error of plus-or-minus 3.6 percentage points.
Governor: Trump, Pence Better Mask Up in Wisconsin
When Trump and Pence will visit Wisconsin next week, Democratic Governor Tony Evers said they better be prepared to follow public health guidelines.
“My expectation is they’re masking up,” he told reporters Thursday, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Evers issued a statewide mandate July 30 requiring masks be worn indoors and in enclosed spaces on.
Trump will visit Oshkosh on Monday, the first day of the Democratic convention, which was supposed to be in Milwaukee. Pence will visit on Wednesday, the same day Harris accepts the vice presidential nomination.
Coming Up:
The Democratic National Convention begins Monday.
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