President Trump’s reelection campaign has erected digital billboards in Wisconsin mocking former Vice President Joe Biden for not attending this week’s Democratic National Convention, which is physically located in Milwaukee, in person due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The billboards, reading “Where’s Joe?,” went up as Trump is scheduled to campaign in Oshkosh, Wis., on Monday, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reported.
The Democratic National Committee (DNC), meanwhile, on Monday launched a cable ad condemning the president’s campaign event as a public health risk. The ad is set to run in Green Bay and Washington, D.C., cable markets.
The DNC ad shows images from the president’s June rally in Tulsa, Okla., amid a coronavirus outbreak in that state and points at the spike in COVID-19 cases in the city following that event.
“Now Trump is coming to Wisconsin for a political stunt that puts you at risk,” a narrator states.
“For months, Trump has claimed the virus would disappear and ignored the experts, and his political event in Wisconsin today shows Trump still isn’t taking this seriously. This campaign photo op is a desperate attempt to distract from the Democratic convention, which will highlight stories of hardworking Americans hurt by Trump’s horrible coronavirus response,” DNC senior spokesperson Lily Adams said in a statement.
The Trump campaign has planned several Wisconsin events to counter the Democratic convention this week.
In addition to the Trump events Monday, Vice President Pence is set to appear in Darien, Wis., on Wednesday, while Trump’s son Eric will appear in Milwaukee on Tuesday. Trump also plans to make remarks in Pennsylvania on Thursday hours before the former vice president’s acceptance speech.
The president’s campaign has repeatedly mocked Biden for eschewing in-person events due to the pandemic, including an ad earlier this month that misrepresented a 2019 photo of Biden at an Iowa mayor’s house as the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee “in his basement.”