New Biden ad hits Trump for feuding with governors over coronavirus

A new ad from former Vice President Joe Biden’s presidential campaign accuses President Trump of shirking responsibility for the federal government’s coronavirus response and blasts him for feuding with governors. 

The new ad, viewed first by The Hill, is called “Buck Stops Here,” and it accuses Trump of being obsessed with his critics, rather than with protecting Americans.

“The buck stops here,” the narrator in the ad says. “Harry Truman said it. It means no excuses. It means taking responsibility, the ultimate responsibilities for the biggest decisions in the world. Every great president has lived up to it.”

The ad then cuts to remarks the president made at recent briefings, in which he blamed former President Obama for a shortage in testing capacity.

“I don’t take responsibility for it at all,” Trump says in the ad.

The ad also features Trump’s remarks in which he describes the federal government as a “backup,” and says that governors should be taking the lead.

“The governors are supposed to be doing a lot of this work,” Trump says in the ad. “We’re a backup. We’re not an ordering clerk, we’re a backup.”

“Donald Trump thought the job was about tweets and rallies and big parades,” the narrator in the ad concludes. “He never thought he’d have to protect nearly 330 million Americans. So he didn’t.”

The Biden campaign has not put any money behind the ad yet, but could cycle it through some of its existing ad buys in the near future.

The ad also reflects the lines of attack the former vice president will take as he seeks to make the case that the president’s slow response has worsened the health and financial crises around the coronavirus outbreak.

Some governors have praised Trump, saying he has been available and flexible in meeting their demands during the crisis.

A Trump campaign aide pointed to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) saying that the president is right to say that “the president is right” when he says that “testing is up to the states.”

But Trump has also feuded bitterly with governors and state officials who have criticized his efforts, such as Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) in Michigan. 

The latest Harvard CAPS-Harris Poll survey found that 51 percent of voters approve of Trump’s handling of the coronavirus. That has helped push Trump to the highest favorability rating of his presidency.

However, the same poll found that 55 percent of voters believe Biden would have handled it better.

And a new Detroit Regional Chamber survey found that voters in Michigan, a key 2020 battleground that Trump won in 2016, prefer Whitmer’s coronavirus response to Trump’s.