$6 million blitz

Priorities USA begins $6 million blitz of anti-Trump coronavirus ads

The Democratic super PAC went up with a new ad on coronavirus in Florida, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin on Tuesday.

By MAYA KING

One of the Democratic Party's main 2020 super PACs is attacking President Donald Trump's handling of the coronavirus outbreak with new TV ads airing in four key swing states.

The new ad from Priorities USA Action, which plans to spend $6 million on TV and digital ads condemning Trump’s response to Covid-19, began running in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Florida on Tuesday and features Trump quotes juxtaposed against a graph showing the number of positive coronavirus tests in America.

At the end of the ad, footage plays of Trump saying, during a Rose Garden press conference at the White House, “I don’t take responsibility at all."

The ad marks a new front in the political battle over government response to the coronavirus. There has been relatively little TV advertising on the pandemic so far, with some scattered ads showing up in the Kentucky Senate race and the West Virginia governor's race so far. In a statement, Priorities USA chairman Guy Cecil said Trump had "repeatedly misled the American people and exposed us to unnecessary danger."

The series of ads targeting Trump’s handling of the coronavirus are part of a $150 million commitment from Priorities USA to run ads slamming Trump on health care in Florida, Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Arizona ahead of the Democratic National Convention in July. The PAC's coronavirus ad campaign comes amid a lull among the Democratic candidates on the airwaves. As several states’ primaries remain in flux, neither Bernie Sanders nor Joe Biden has purchased TV or radio airtime since the March 17 elections in Florida and Arizona.

Priorities USA is also out with a second TV ad highlighting Biden’s experience in the executive branch along with two other digital ads with similar themes are also out on the airwaves in battleground states.