The Biden campaign on Friday announced a massive ad blitz and ramped up media appearances by the president in a desperate bid to save his teetering reelection effort.
President Biden in the past week has waged an intense fight to save his campaign following a devastating debate performance that spawned Democrats’ serious questions about his candidacy and fitness to serve. So far, three elected House Democrats, several newspapers and a host of liberal political commentators have called for him to step aside as the nominee.
The campaign’s media blitz and voter outreach are part of its efforts to right the ship amid lingering questions about how long he can remain in the race.
The campaign said it will launch a $50 million ad blitz in battleground states along with $17 million to ramp up voter outreach by sending Mr. Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, first lady Jill Biden and second gentleman Doug Emhoff to every battleground state in July.
The TV, radio and digital ads will highlight issues including abortion and the economy and depict former President Donald Trump as a threat to democracy. The ads will air on television programs with large audiences including the 2024 Olympics, the season premiere Monday of the reality TV show “The Bachelorette” and the Republican National Convention that opens in Milwaukee on July 15.
The campaign said the ad buys are an opportunity to reach “a wide swath of voters this campaign needs to win in November.”
In addition to the ad buys, the campaign said Mr. Biden will return to the campaign trail after next week’s NATO summit in Washington.
He will swing through the Southwest to engage with Black and Latino voters. Mr. Biden will also travel to Las Vegas for the NAACP and UnidosUS conferences and, later, visit the “blue wall” states of Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania.
“While Donald Trump is on the golf course, we are putting in the work to reach critical voters and frame the election as a choice between Joe Biden — a fighter for American families — and Donald Trump — a convicted criminal who is running a campaign of revenge and retribution focused only on himself,” the campaign said in a statement.
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.
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