His ad will fall on deaf ears.
The upcoming re-election campaign ad from President Joe Biden’s team, set to debut this Friday, is poised to deliver a scathing critique of former President Donald Trump’s cozy relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin and his disparaging remarks concerning the NATO alliance.
Titled “Walk Away,” the minute-long advertisement confronts recent statements by the leading contender for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. Trump’s assertion that he would “encourage” Putin to act without restraint towards NATO nations failing to meet defense expenditure quotas is met with vehement condemnation in the ad.
The narrator, speaking in the clip shared exclusively with NBC News, denounces Trump’s rhetoric as unprecedented, shameful, weak, dangerous, and fundamentally un-American. This sentiment echoes President Biden’s own rebuke of Trump’s remarks earlier in the week from the White House.
The timing of the ad’s release coincides with the announcement from Russian state media regarding the death of Alexei Navalny, a prominent critic of Putin, though the Biden campaign had already initiated its production.
Highlighting the historical commitment of U.S. presidents to the NATO alliance since Harry Truman’s era, the ad underscores Trump’s departure from this tradition, portraying his stance as a threat to America’s security. Trump’s recent reaffirmation of his reluctance to uphold NATO’s mutual defense clause further accentuates this departure.
The NATO treaty, rooted in collective defense, obligates member states to come to each other’s aid in the event of an attack, with the only invocation of this clause occurring post-9/11.
The Biden campaign plans to roll out the ad as part of a three-week, six-figure campaign targeting key battleground states like Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania up to Super Tuesday. Specifically aiming to resonate with the sizable populations of Polish, Finnish, Norwegian, Lithuanian, Latvian, and Estonian Americans, who hail from NATO countries sharing borders with Russia.
Campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez underscores the message that Trump’s loyalty lies solely with himself, rather than with American allies or citizens. She asserts that while Trump may perceive his deference to Putin and other autocrats as a sign of strength, the American electorate sees through this facade, recognizing him for what she describes as a “coward and a loser.”
