Biden ad attacking Trump for Chicom virus backfires

Red States:
A little over a week after the Trump campaign released a hard-hitting ad blasting Joe Biden for his and his son Hunter’s troubling China ties, the Biden campaign has responded by releasing one of their own, which makes some dubious media-driven claims about Trump’s response to the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak and his complicated relationship with China’s president Xi Jinping:

Donald Trump left our country unprepared and unprotected for the worst public health and economic crisis in our lifetime — and now we're paying the price. pic.twitter.com/aCxcqQqUqw

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) April 18, 2020
But unfortunately for Joe Biden, the ad has backfired spectacularly. Not just with the conservatives and Republicans who would understandably question what’s being alleged in the ad, but also among Democrats who are criticizing him by using the same “xenophobic” attack line Biden himself used on Trump after he implemented China travel restrictions in late January:
The ad, while praised among Biden supporters, was widely-criticized among left-leaning journalists and Twitter users.

The Intercept editor Glenn Greenwald suggested that the Democrats who previously denounced Trump’s rhetoric towards China as “racist” are now cheering on the same sentiment.

“Trump’s response to COVID-19 has been inept and self-serving, but wow this is some xenophobic messaging…” progressive journalist Walker Bragman reacted.

“It’s exhausting how people are praising a dog-whistling ad that leans on yellow peril narratives but I guess that’s what you have to do when your candidate has no intention of fixing the structural problems that got us into this mess to begin with,” Vulture senior writer E. Alex Jung wrote.

“Wow ⁦@JoeBiden⁩. Already trying to out-Trump Trump. This kind of fearmongering is causing violent attacks on Asian Americans. If you are trying to reform your past history of racist policymaking, like your 1994 crime bill, you had better do some homework. This ain’t it,” civil rights lawyer Cecelia Wang tweeted.
There’s plenty more where that came from, too:

As a Chinese American who plans to vote for Biden, I find this ad dangerous to people like me. It doesn’t distinguish between “the Chinese“ and “China’s government“ in highlighting Trump’s praise.

— socially distant Tippi (@TrashFireT) April 18, 2020
...

Beyond the outrage from the left over the ad, there were some problematic claims in it, as Joel Pollak pointed out here:

Aside from Biden's deep (and corrupt) ties to China, this ad fails to mention Biden's opposition to the travel ban, and pretends Trump wasn't trying to get the CDC into China. Also presents events in January as if they happened after events in late February. Total fraud by Biden. https://t.co/a0IaDYIOrT
— Joel B. Pollak (@joelpollak) April 19, 2020

While the ad is being criticized by people on both the left and the right, another thing it does do in Trump’s favor is show that Joe Biden has accepted the terms Trump has set up for the debate on China: That they can’t be trusted, and that they lied to the world about the Wuhan coronavirus.
...
Notice that I refer to those responsible for the virus as "Chicoms" to distinguish them from people of Chinese origin.  The left might see that term as a throwback to the cold war, but it is an effective way of distinguishing the leaders of the current Chinese government from the people. 

The ad's failure to explain away Biden's earlier criticism of Trump's actions to stop travel from China is also a mistake that he will be constantly reminded of by Trump and his supporters.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Should Republicans go ahead and add Supreme Court Justices to head off Democrats

Washington Post: Some Democrats eye adding more justices to the Supreme Court to change its ideological bent The once-remote idea has gained the attention of liberals angered by the GOP push to remake the federal courts. Probably the easy way to defeat this court-packing scheme is for Trump to propose doing the same thing now.  It would lead to Democrat denunciations and claims that it would be wrong, thereby blowing up any attempt by them in the unfortunate event of Democrats winning a presidential election.
Read more

Is the F-35 obsolete?

Headline USA: Pentagon Fires Back after Musk Calls Its Most Expensive Project ‘Obsolete’ 'Yeah, as I'm sure you can appreciate, Mr. Musk is, currently, a private citizen, I'm not going to make any comments about what a private citizen may have to say about the F-35....'   ... ... Drones appear to be replacing jets for many operations.  The Russia-Ukraine war is an example of that.  Drones are often hard to detect and can be used for intelligence operations as well as for attacking enemy targets.  It would not surprise me to see drones engaging other drones in combat.  They also cost much less than manned fighters.  
Read more

Apple's huge investment in US including Texas facility

Blaze: Apple announced a $500 billion commitment to infrastructure in the United States over four years, its largest commitment to domestic spending to date. Apple said it will expand teams and facilities in Arizona, California, Iowa, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Oregon, Texas, and Washington as part of its new spending. With a new facility in Houston, Texas, Apple will reportedly double its investment in advanced manufacturing along with increasing investments in AI and silicon engineering. The company said in a press release that the Houston facility will produce servers to support Apple Intelligence, the "personal intelligence system that helps users write, express themselves, and get things done." ... The Texas facility will be for advanced technologies.   Texas has become a place that is very supportive of the tech industries.  Austin and Houston have seen much of the tech growth in the state.  Texas universities have been active in the AI field.
Read more