The Lincoln Project, an anti-Trump Republican group, launched an ad Sunday slamming President Trump over his response to the coronavirus pandemic and accusing him of risking the lives of the “Greatest Generation” of Americans.
“It is both disheartening and disturbing that the generation we owe for bravely taking up arms and conquering fascism is now at risk of being extinguished by the authoritarian residing in our own White House,” Rick Wilson, co-founder of the Lincoln Project, said in a statement.
“There is absolutely no equivalency between American lives and our economy, especially those of the most hallowed generation of Americans ever, the patriots singularly responsible for our continued existence as a nation and a democracy,” he added.
The ad uses video footage and images of soldiers in World War II, with a narrator discussing the sacrifices Americans made to help “save the world.”
“Haven’t we asked enough of the Greatest Generation?” the narrator says.
The ad also cuts to a clip of Trump’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, using a portion of a speech in which the president urges the country to reopen and states, “We cannot let the cure be worse than the problem itself.”
Older people are at a greater risk for severe illness from COVID-19, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The ad launched Sunday in Arizona, Florida, South Carolina and Texas. It will also air on Fox in Washington, D.C., starting Tuesday.
The ad is the latest launched by the Lincoln Project, a group co-founded by attorney George Conway, who is married to White House counselor Kellyanne Conway, attacking Trump over his response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Cases in the U.S. have surged in recent days, driven mainly by upticks in the South and West.