Throughout the 2020 race Donald Trump has dominated the digital campaign trail not just with his incessant tweeting, but by vastly outspending his Democratic rivals in online advertising. That seemed to put Joe Biden at something of a disadvantage even before the coronavirus pandemic struck. But his comparatively limited digital presence became even more of a hinderance when COVID-19 essentially forced the candidates off the campaign trail.
Now, the president is on the ropes as he handles a public health crisis, an economic downturn, and nationwide turmoil over systemic racism with all the competence and grace one would expect. And the presumptive Democratic nominee has gone on the offensive, ramping up both his online and in-public presence as Trump flails. As the New York Times reports, Biden has dramatically escalated his Facebook spending, purchasing close to $5 million in advertising on the platform in just a few days last week and beating Trump’s single-day record Thursday with a $1.6 million buy. His recent splurge, which matched what he’d spent in 10 months of campaigning, sought to tap into the energy of the protests against racism and police brutality, which have also focused on Trump.
The president has responded to the largely-peaceful demonstrations with violence, threats, and a more brazen embrace of his authoritarian impulses. He has hoped to use the protests to latch onto a “law and order” campaign message, but polls have suggested he’s out of touch with most Americans, a majority of whom appear to support the demonstrators. Biden, meanwhile, has hit back at Trump’s incendiary and unhinged rhetoric and voiced support for law enforcement reforms that have even earned him some rare support among some progressives. “Joe Biden recognizes the urgent need for real reform to address our broken policing system,” former 2020 candidate Julián Castro wrote in a June 2 endorsement. “I’m proud to support him, and I look forward to seeing these reforms become law, so that what happened to George Floyd never happens again.”
In his digital advertising, Team Biden’s recent focus has been on how Trump has fanned the “flames of white supremacy, hatred, and violence,” and on promoting a petition condemning the president—which the campaign can use to connect with potential supporters. The ads have also focused more on the younger voters that Biden struggled to win over in the primary. “It’s great that the Biden campaign is seeing the activism that is going on in the streets,” Eric Ming, former director of digital and paid media for Andrew Yang’s campaign, told the Times, “and looking to capitalize on that online.” Outside groups have piled on. The most recent ad for the Lincoln Project—the organization led by George Conway and other Never Trump Republicans—opens with a clip of Trump discussing his so-called enormous inauguration crowds, before cutting to thousands of protesters packing the streets. “It took almost four years for Trump to get the crowds he wanted,” the narrator says. “After years of Donald Trump’s divisiveness and discord, America is coming together.”
Biden, who in one poll Tuesday has expanded his lead over Trump to 14 points, also released an advertisement Tuesday, featuring his recent speech calling for police reform playing over images juxtaposing recent protests with the civil rights movement of the 1960s. “It’s going to take more than talk,” Biden says. “We had talk before. We’ve had protests before. We’ve got to now vow to make this at least an era of action, and reverse systemic racism with long overdue concrete changes.”
The uprising over Floyd’s killing has become a flashpoint for the country, with less than two weeks of protests resulting in a number of concrete measures—charges against Derek Chauvin, the Minneapolis cop who killed Floyd, and the officers who stood by as he did it; that city’s leaders voting to disband the police department; and a groundswell against racism and inequality across several industries. The social unrest has also laid bare what would be at stake under another four years of Trump. Biden appears to be tapping into that energy, aligning himself with the demonstrators against a president whose administration stands in the way of the progress they demand. “This is a seminal moment,” Jason Rosenbaum, a top digital strategist for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign, told the Times. Biden’s spending is “an indication that grass-roots donors are donating money at extremely high levels.”
More Great Stories From Vanity Fair
— Trump Whines About His COVID-19 Victimhood as Campaign Flails
— In Photos: Protests and Rage in Minneapolis, New York, Los Angeles, and More
— James Clyburn on the Floyd Killing and the Role of Race in the Coming Election
— Journalists Become Targets While Covering America’s Unraveling
— Documents Expose FDA Commissioner’s Personal Interventions on Behalf of Trump’s Favorite Chloroquine Doctor
— Why Trump’s New Campaign Slogan, “Transition to Greatness,” Sends a Disastrous Message
— From the Archive: Inside Unspeakable Police Brutality in a Brooklyn Precinct Once Nicknamed Fort Tombstone
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