MAGA Inc., the super PAC backing former President Donald Trump’s presidential bid, is questioning President Joe Biden’s ability to serve a second term in a new TV ad, with a narrator asking if Biden can “even survive til 2029.”
The ad begins with a video clip showing Biden pausing during a February statement at the White House before he says, “I guess I should clear my mind here a little bit.”
The clip comes from remarks Biden gave at the White House following the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. The full video shows Biden speaking about comments Trump had made about letting Russia “do whatever the hell they want” to NATO countries that he thought weren’t paying enough for defense. Biden then paused for dramatic effect, expressing exasperation with Trump.
“I guess I should clear my mind here a little bit and not say what I’m really thinking, but let me be clear: This is an outrageous thing for a president to say,” Biden then said.
The clip in the ad cuts off the end of Biden’s statement.
The ad’s narrator then tells viewers, “We can all see Joe Biden’s weakness. If Biden wins, can he even survive till 2029?”
“The real question is: Can we?” the narrator continues, before featuring a clip of Vice President Kamala Harris laughing.
In a statement, Biden campaign spokesperson Ammar Moussa told NBC News that the ad is “a sick and deranged stunt from a broke and struggling campaign.”
Moussa added, “Trump tried this strategy four years ago and got his a– kicked by Joe Biden — he should tune in tonight alongside tens of millions of Americans to see why President Biden will beat him again this November.”
The ad leans into one of Biden’s biggest weaknesses with voters heading into the 2024 election.
The president’s age is an issue of concern to voters, polls show. In a January NBC News poll, 62% of registered voters said they had “major concerns” about Biden “not having the necessary mental and physical health to be president for a second term.”
That was up slightly from November of last year, when just 59% of voters had major concerns about Biden’s mental and physical health in a potential second term.
In recent weeks, Biden has pointed to the contrast with Trump to answer criticism about his age. In a recent appearance on NBC’s “Late Night with Seth Meyers,” Biden said, “Take a look at the other guy, he’s about as old as I am.”
He went on to criticize Trump’s policies: “It’s about how old your ideas are,” Biden said. “Look, I mean, this is a guy who wants to take us back.”
Regardless of who wins in November — Biden, who is 81, or Trump, who is 77 — the victor would be the oldest U.S. president ever elected.
So far, voters say they are less concerned about Trump’s age. The January NBC News poll found that only 34% of voters have “major concerns” about Trump “not having the necessary mental and physical health to be president for a second term.”
The TV ad began running Thursday morning nationally on MSNBC, CNN, Fox News, and Newsmax, hours before Biden will head to the Capitol to deliver his State of the Union address, and will continue running through Friday morning, according to MAGA Inc.
The group says it is spending $500,000 to air the ad.
Republicans have been saying throughout the presidential campaign that a second term for Biden could mean that Harris would succeed him, if anything were to happen to the president. Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, who dropped out of the race Wednesday, made a line about it part of her stump speech.
Last year, asked if she would support Trump if he won the Republican nomination, Haley told Fox News, “I would support him because I am not going to have a President Kamala Harris. We cannot afford that.”
She equivocated on whether she would back Trump toward the end of her campaign, though, telling NBC News she did not feel bound by a previous pledge to support the GOP nominee.
“Never just follow the crowd. Always make up your own mind,” Haley said Wednesday as she ended her campaign, quoting Margaret Thatcher. “It is now up to Donald Trump to earn the votes of those in our party and beyond it who did not support him, and I hope he does.”
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
