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The 2020 campaign is heating up.
Former Vice President Joe Biden’s campaign turned his Monday Pittsburgh speech — in which he condemns rioting and looting — into a blistering, $45 million ad titled ‘Be Not Afraid.’
“I want to make it absolutely clear: Rioting is not protesting, looting is not protesting. It’s lawlessness, plain and simple, and those who do it should be prosecuted,” Biden says.
The 60-second spot will air on cable news networks nationally and in battleground states like Arizona, Florida, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
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This stinging rebuke comes in light of the shootings in Kenosha, Wisconsin, that was brought on by police shooting Jacob Blake, a Black man, in the back.
The ad is in response to President Trump who invoked fear-mongering imagery of armed mobs rioting through the suburbs to scare White voters. Trump asserted that Biden would preside over a country where lawlessness is at its peak.
Ironically, the national outcry over racial injustice and police brutality is occurring under President Trump’s watch. Something that Biden played up.
In the ad, Biden says,
He can’t stop the violence because, for years, he’s fomented it. His failure to call on his own supporters to stop acting as an armed militia in this country shows how weak he is.
When his words ring alongside footage of right-wing protesters reigning havoc in Portland, Charlottesville, rampaging through Kenosha, and Trump standing in Washington, D.C.’s Lafayette Square after protesters were tear-gassed to clear the way for him in June, you can’t look away.
To my law and order GOP friends, the choice is pretty clear: one man grabs a fire hose, the other one grabs a can of gasoline. https://t.co/eSTKineShv
— Greg Jenkins (@jenkinsgreg) September 2, 2020
According to The New York Times, this is the first time that Biden has put the issues of crime and public safety into a massive ad campaign. Nearly 75% of his previous ads have dealt with coronavirus.
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Religious conservatives have turned a blind eye to Trump’s past — everything from his infamous Access Hollywood tape where he brags about groping women to affair allegations with adult film star Stormy Daniels. He even held the Bible (upside down) and like it was burning him for a photo-op at the St.John’s church.
On the other hand, Biden quoting Pope John Paul II, and his invocation of one of the most powerful Catholic hymns in his ad won him major brownie points.
Biden said,
If I were president my language would be less divisive. I’d be looking to lower the temperature in this country, not raise it. This is not who we are. I believe we’ll be guided by the words of Pope John Paul II, words drawn from the scriptures, ‘Be not afraid.’
At a time when Trump is “fanning flames of hate,” this message of hope was a welcome change for most Americans too.
The John Paul II reference was a smart one. Refutes Lou Holtz's lie while highlighting Biden's Catholicism. & Be Not Afraid speaks on an emotional level to every Catholic (& many non-Catholics) who have heard that hymn at a loved one's funeral.
— David Darmofal (@david_darmofal) August 31, 2020
A scholar counted & found that 1 message was repeated more than any other in Scripture. 366 times. 1 for each day of the year, & once more for good measure. It is God's main message to humanity: Be Not Afraid.
Proud to have had this speech in Pittsburgh. https://t.co/X2CIAvqO3r
— Conor Lamb (@ConorLambPA) September 2, 2020
Looks like messages of love trumps hate after all.
