Welcome to the online version of From the policy deskevening bulletin that brings you the latest reporting and analysis from the campaign trail, the White House and Capitol Hill from the NBC News Politics team.
In today’s edition, we report on Joe Biden’s huge advertising advantage — and why it’s about to disappear. Plus, senior national political reporter Jonathan Allen Hunter analyzes why Biden’s trial is bad news for Donald Trump.
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Biden’s massive advertising advantage won’t last forever
By Ben Kamisar
Get ready: Donald Trump’s cavalry comes after months of unanswered strikes courtesy of President Joe Biden’s campaign.
MAGA Inc., a Trump-supporting super PAC. announced its plans this week spending $100 million on advertising among key swing states this summer. This is a title worth paying attention to for a number of reasons.
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Just as Trump’s world becomes his criminal trial financial gainThe big question for the former president and his orbit is: How can they use this money most effectively in a race where they’ve won and are outspent?
The announcement is poised to fundamentally change the landscape of ad spending in the so-far Democratic-dominated race. Since March 13 (the day after both Trump and Biden were projected as the presumptive nominees of their parties), Biden and his top allies have outspent Trump and his groups 3-to-1 in the airwaves.
This is a dramatic difference from how things looked at the same time in 2020. From April 8 (after Sen. Bernie Sanders ended his Democratic primary challenge against Biden) to June 6, 2020, Trump and his key allies dominated ad spending. Biden.
It’s hard to say how much Trump’s super PAC’s summer spending was (and Democratic groups as well) will affect this race, one that remains within the margin of error despite the Democrats’ large spending gap and Trump’s recent conviction. As important as it may be in a static race, Biden’s ad has been an objective advantage for his re-election campaign over the past three months — and Republicans are about to cut deeply into that advantage.
Why does Hunter Biden’s trial hurt Trump?
By Jonathan Allen
Hunter Biden’s trial is embarrassing for President Joe Biden and his family, but its mere existence leaves a huge hole in former President Donald Trump’s public defense of his criminal charges.
The president’s surviving son, Hunter, is accused of illegally buying a gun while a drug addict. The court proves painful testimony About Hunter’s brother Beau’s ill-fated romance with his widow Hallie Biden and his frequent use of crack cocaine.
The alleged crime at the center of the lawsuit — lying about being addicted on a federal firearms purchase form — stems from the so-called Brady Bill, an early 1990s gun control law. Joe Biden was a leading proponent of the measure, and he was quite clear about his feelings on guns and drugs when the bill was being considered during the era’s crack epidemic.
He told the Associated Press in 1991 that he thought drug addicts “should be taken off the street and forced into prisons and jails and drug centers.”
Hunter’s indictment thus demonstrates consistency in the president’s position, even if his son’s freedom is at stake, and perhaps more importantly for the 2024 election, it does not interfere with a federal court in which he has a vested personal interest. result.
Without providing any evidence, Trump regularly accuses the president of a Democratic conspiracy to impeach him. After being convicted on 34 counts of trying to help Trump’s 2016 campaign by falsifying business records to hide an alleged relationship, Trump said he would have “every right.” judge his political opponents If he is re-elected president in 2024.
His logic is that if Biden can lead the charge, so can he. But Biden is not involved in anything.
Biden has no official influence over the Manhattan prosecutors trying Trump’s case, nor did he have a role in the return of the grand jury indictment against Trump or in coordinating the unanimous decision of 12 jurors to convict Trump.
There is no evidence that Biden improperly influenced the two federal criminal trials Trump is facing — being tried by an independent and independent special counsel. “not subject to daily control” Everyone in the Justice Department that Biden oversees. Similarly, there is no indication that he played a role in a Georgia case in which Trump is accused of trying to illegally overturn that state’s 2020 election results.
So what voters are left with is Trump making the implausible claim that Biden is interfering with his courts but not Hunter’s case. It remains to be seen whether Hunter will be found guilty or if the president will pardon him — Biden told ABC News on Thursday that he had rejected the pardon — but for now, what is clear is that the president respects the rule of law when it comes to his son’s fate.
Trump’s base won’t care.
But for swing voters worried about presidents abusing their power to reward friends and punish enemies, Biden is showing the kind of restraint that Trump accused him of abandoning.
🗞️ The best stories of the day
- 🗣️ Biden’s warning: Biden marked the 80th anniversary of DD Day in France on Thursday and warned that democracy is still under attack today. More →
- ⚖️ Bannon behind bars? A federal judge has ordered former Trump adviser Steve Bannon to go to prison on July 1 for four months in prison for failing to comply with subpoenas from a committee investigating the January 6, 2021 riots. More →
- 😟 Pensioner worries: NBC News’ Gretchen Morgenson and Anna Schecter examine concerns among retirees in Pennsylvania, a battleground where pensions are falling short of a higher cost of living. More →
- 💸 Veepstakes: South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, one of Trump’s leading contenders, is using a super PAC to boost support for Trump among black and Hispanic voters. And The New York Times reports that Scott believes Trump is guilty of hush money, which could boost Trump’s popularity among blacks. More →
- 👀 The Donalds Controversy: Democrats quickly blasted Florida GOP Rep. Byron Donalds on Wednesday after reports at an event for black voters for the Trump campaign this week that Donalds said that black families were more united and voted conservatively during the Jim Crow era (Donalds said Democrats are “lying”). ). More →
- 🚫 Mr. Jones and the CPC: The Congressional Progressive Caucus PAC has rescinded the endorsement of former Rep. Mondaire Jones, D.N.Y., after endorsing a primary challenger to New York Democratic Rep. Jamaal Bowman. More →
For now, that’s it from The Politics Desk. If you have feedback – like it or not – send us an email politicsnewsletter@nbcuni.com
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