Pro-Trump group releases another round of ‘Beijing Biden’ ads in battleground states

The largest outside group supporting President Trump’s reelection announced Friday it is releasing a slew of attack ads against former Vice President Joe Biden as part of its “Beijing Biden” campaign, framing the presumptive Democratic nominee as too friendly toward China, including on matters regarding the coronavirus. 

The America First Action PAC announced the $10 million ad buy last month in the battleground states of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. It’s the group’s first independent expenditure of the 2020 election cycle.

The ads calling the former vice president “Beijing Biden” feature clips predominantly from his time in the Obama administration, including saying he has well-wishes for China. 

One more recent clip, however, features Biden from earlier this year saying “banning all travel will not stop it” when the president closed the country’s borders to China over the rising coronavirus pandemic. 

Trump has touted that move as a success in his handling of the U.S. outbreak, which has come under scrutiny.

The Biden campaign has responded by launching a counterattack, showing clips of the president downplaying the coronavirus before government efforts later ramped up.

America First Action released its first ad attacking Biden on China in mid-April, including footage from a speech in 2011 when he was vice president.

“I believed in 1979 and I believe now that a rising China is a positive development,” Biden said at the time.

The group said it is investing $5.5 million strategically in cities across Pennsylvania, along with $2.7 million in Wisconsin and $2 million in Michigan. Trump flipped all three states from blue to red in 2016.

America First said their new ads will run until at least the end of the month.