A super PAC backing President Joe Biden plans to spend more than $40 million starting in late spring to focus on Donald Trump’s mounting legal troubles and the “threat to democracy” that Biden’s campaign has so far avoided directly attacking.
The idea is to try and boost ads that the group, Unite the Country, thinks can sway state voters who lean moderate or conservative, or who are anti-Trump, or against the former president by four votes. indictments — including two on allegations he tried to overturn the 2020 election.
The accusations proved to be political rocket fuel for Trump in the Republican primary. GOP voters saw him as a target of an armed justice system seeking to end his political career. Trump dominated the first two nomination contests, receiving more than 50% of the vote in both Iowa and New Hampshireand most public opinion polls have shown that his support for Republicans has grown as his legal troubles mount.
An NBC New in June request found Trump’s lead has grown by nearly 30 points over former Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who was in second place at the time. And throughout the summerhis relationship with Republican voters grew stronger as the indictments piled up.
But the pro-Biden group is betting that moving into the general election, the calculus will change and legal challenges will hurt Trump’s chances.
“We feel that this segment of the electorate is a critical, if not critical, vote,” said Steve Schale, the group’s director. “We plan to lean into it early and often.”
Biden’s campaign has so far avoided directly attacking Trump over his legal troubles, which could fuel the idea that his administration is using the Justice Department to attack his chief political rival.
“The president has said from the beginning that he wants an independent Justice Department, and we have to do that,” Richmond, a former top White House aide to Biden, told ABC News in an interview.This week.” “Therefore, we will not comment. We will not focus on Donald Trump’s legal problems.”
That position means much of the negative attention to Trump’s impeachment will fall on fringe groups like Unite the Country.
Biden’s campaign declined to comment for this story.
Unite the country – the original pro-Baden super PAC Launched in 2019 to support his first presidential bid – he will focus mainly on digital ads with several TV spots. They have already explored issues in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, which will be crucial to Biden’s re-election strategy. . He raised and spent nearly $50 million to support Biden during the 2020 election cycle. The group said it has raised $2.1 million through 2024, almost exclusively from union groups.
The late September survey included 1,000 respondents from each of the three states, including 482 voters who said they had unfavorable views of both Trump and Biden — a segment of voters the group called “no.” This type of voter supported Trump by 17 points over Hillary Clinton in 2016, but now favors the former president 51 to 48 percent over Biden, according to a United Nations poll shared with NBC News.
“The thing is, those voters have to be more pro-Trump,” Schale said. “They were 17 Trumps in the past, and the only thing keeping them where they are now is the belief that a vote for Trump is a vote to end democracy.”
The poll focused on a number of messaging issues, asking respondents about “phrases that could be used to describe former President Donald Trump.” 55% of them viewed Trump’s role in a potential “coup” as very serious or highly doubtful, compared to 57% when asked about “indictments.”
In addition, 68% of respondents said they strongly or somewhat believe that Trump is “attempting a coup after the 2020 election.”
Each of Trump’s four indictments raised some concerns among those polled, but the most troubling was the federal indictment filed as part of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into the Jan. 6 Capitol attack. 52% of those who took part in the survey said that they would be most worried about Trump being tried on any of the charges related to this charge.
As originally expected, this work will no longer start in early March issued order Judge Tanya Chutkan on Friday. The delay comes as a separate court considers whether Trump is immune from prosecution; it raises the possibility that his first criminal trial will be in New York for his alleged falsification of business records as part of a scheme to pay hush money to an adult movie star in the run-up to the 2016 election.
It’s the lowest-ranked indictment among voters unifying the country, with just 7% saying they were most worried about Trump being prosecuted in the case.
NBC News voting data Sunday’s release supports the idea that Trump’s legal troubles could cause problems for him in the general election.
Trump led Biden 47% to 42% among registered voters, but Biden had a 45% to 43% advantage when respondents were asked who they would support if Trump were convicted of a crime before Election Day. Although Trump led Biden by more than 20 points on which candidate would better manage the economy and more than 30 points on who would better handle the border and immigration issues.
Some Republican pollsters also argue that the legal issues won’t draw voters significantly because there’s a high level of awareness about them — so fewer voters are undecided about the issue — and traditionally, people vote based on records. of the incumbent.
“In 2020, Joe Biden was running as an alternative to Trump, and because there wasn’t much of a campaign, he was the way you wanted him to be. He was an old moderate or a Scranton Joe or whatever,” said Republican Adam Geller, who is not currently eligible for a 2024 campaign but has voted for Trump in the past. As you can see, most of them are not good.”
“So despite Trump’s legal problems, ultimately the people will always decide how they’re going to make decisions, which is largely based on the current president’s referendum,” he said.
Biden enters the general election season with approval ratings below 40% in the most recent public opinion polls, and Trump is slightly ahead of the former president in many, if not all, public opinion polls.
Biden’s lagging approval rating numbers come as his campaign and aligned committees are already spending heavily on TV and digital ads.
Biden’s campaign, the Democratic National Committee and Action Forward USA, the main nonprofit arm. According to AdImpact, a pro-Biden super PAC, they’ve spent more than $35 million on TV ads so far, but they haven’t been able to move the needle. The first messages tested in these ads focused on climate change, high inflation and efforts to reduce abortion, themes that will continue in Future Fo.rThe chamber is launching a $250 million advertising campaign that will begin around the Democratic National Convention in August, The New York Times first reported informed.
Trump’s campaign says the early spending spree, with few positive results, is indicative of Biden’s weak position.
“Crooked Joe Biden and the Democrats are spending millions to attack President Trump and have weaponized nearly every level of government to interfere in this election,” Trump’s national press secretary Carolyn Leavitt said. “No one is fighting harder for the American people than President Trump, and he has never been in a stronger position to win re-election.”
But Schale, a pro-Biden super PAC, says their early polling data gives them optimism that focusing on Trump’s legal problems and attempts to overturn the 2020 election can make a difference in key states.
“Many of these voters were ready for the election in 2020. The framing of the issue was different in 2020, but this is certainly a group of voters that voted for Trump in 2016 and are very reluctant in 2020,” he said. . “But they needed a very good reason.”