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President Trump’s re-election campaign takes his attacks on Democratic challenger Joe Biden’s mental acuteness to a new level.
On Tuesday, the Trump campaign ran a digital ad suggesting the former vice president and alleged Democratic nominee has suffered cognitive decline in the past four to five years.
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The spot asks, “Did something happen to Joe Biden?” and it cuts between the clips of Vice President Biden from 2015 and 2016 speaking clearly and forcefully and the video of Biden stumbling and seeming to lose his train of thought during the 2020 presidential campaign.
The ad, and a few other spots that also question Biden’s mental abilities, are featured in some high-traffic online real estate, like YouTube’s masthead, where the Trump campaign runs ads during the 4-day campaign. the Democratic National Convention.
The spots ran overnight Monday through Tuesday as part of their rotation “on our YouTube masthead takeover” for 96 straight hours, the Trump campaign told Fox News. The campaign said the spots were a major component of their 7-figure digital purchase during the Democratic convention. The ads were first reported by Axios.
The president and his campaign wondered if Biden, 77, had the stamina to serve as the country’s commander-in-chief.
“Joe is not all there. Everyone knows it. And it’s sad when you watch it and see it, ”Trump said in an interview with Fox News in June.
Meanwhile, a Trump campaign ad released earlier this month claimed Biden is ‘diminished’, the new spots are the first to highlight the questioning of the old vice’s mental acuity. -President.
“It’s an uncomfortable conversation to have, but voters deserve to be able to assess Joe Biden’s abilities by seeing him and listening to him in his own words, especially compared to just a few years ago,” said to Fox the director of communications for the Trump campaign, Tim Murtaugh. News. “Being president of the most powerful nation in the world carries the heavy responsibility of navigating dangerous situations around the world in real time and following the serious internal issues facing the American people. Voters deserve to fully understand what’s going on with Joe Biden. “
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But a national poll suggests slightly more Americans are confident in Biden’s mental and physical abilities than in the 74-year-old president’s abilities.
An ABC News / Washington Post poll released in May indicated that Biden had a slight advantage over Trump when voters were asked which candidate had the “mental acumen” to serve effectively as president.
And a Monmouth University poll released last month showed that 52% of registered voters polled said they were at least somewhat convinced Biden had the mental and physical stamina to do the extremely demanding job. of president. Only 45% said the same about Trump.
However, a third of those polled said they were very confident the president was in the physical and mental shape to do his job, compared to 23% for the alleged Democratic presidential candidate.
Some political experts have speculated that the president’s attacks on Biden’s cognitive abilities could backfire on the elderly, a crucial vote block that Trump won by 7 points in his 2016 White House victory over Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. Fox News’ latest nationwide poll, conducted Aug. 9-12, showed Biden topped Trump by 51% to 42% among voters aged 65 and over.
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Responding to the new ads, Andrew Bates, director of rapid response for the Biden campaign, said that “Donald Trump is failing every conceivable strategic test dramatically by increasing mentions of this topic.”
Highlighting the coronavirus pandemic, Bates argued that “Joe Biden has sounded the alarm bells early on the epidemic, as Donald Trump still promises us that the virus will magically ‘disappear’. Joe Biden has emphasized the advice of medical experts throughout the pandemic, but Donald Trump has publicly encouraged victims of COVID-19 to inject themselves with disinfectant. Trump even said we should “bomb” hurricanes over water.
Asked by Fox News’ Doug McKelway at a press conference earlier this summer if he checks for cognitive decline, Biden replied, “I am constantly being tested. And he stressed, “I can’t wait to compare my cognitive abilities to the cognitive abilities of the man I am running against.”
But earlier this month, in a fiery interview moment, Biden clarified that he had never taken a cognitive test.
“No, I didn’t take a test. Why the hell should I take a test?” Biden responded, in an interview broadcast at the National Association of Black Journalists and National Association of Hispanic Journalists convention. Biden was asked if he took a cognitive decline test.
Biden and Trump have long been criticized for their rambling speeches and gaffes. Biden discussed overcoming his stuttering issues growing up, and on a few occasions he described himself as a “blunder machine.”
Questions about the president’s health surfaced this spring, after photos of Trump at the opening ceremony at the US Military Academy at West Point.
A clip of Trump slowly and cautiously descending a ramp from the podium, as West Point Superintendent Lt. Gen. Darryl A. Williams walked alongside him, went viral and garnered media coverage questioning health Of the president. Trump later ridiculed this account during his remarks at his June rally in Tulsa, Okla.
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