Joe Biden has launched a brutal campaign advert in response to a post made by Donald Trump which asked voters if they were “better off” before his political rival took office.
The former president took to his social media platform earlier this week, writing, in his typical style of all capital letters: “ARE YOU BETTER OFF THAN YOU WERE FOUR YEARS AGO?”
On Thursday the Biden campaign posted a short clip to X, captioned: “Donald, I’m glad you asked.”
The video, paid for by the president, contained a package of clips showing Mr Trump’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.
In it, Mr Trump is seen to be downplaying the mortality rate caused by the virus, responding to questions about the thousands of US deaths by saying “It is what it is.”
“I don’t take responsibility at all, I think we’re doing really, really well,” he says in one clip.
The video also included one of Mr Trump’s infamous gaffes in which he questioned whether it would be possible to inject disinfectant “inside” the human body as a way of combating the virus.
At the time the former president said these remarks were “sarcastic”.
Mr Trump also rated his response to the coronavirus pandemic – which killed more than a million Americans – as a 10 out of 10, telling reporters: “I think we did a great job”.
A rematch of the 2020 election, which Mr Trump falsely claimed was “stolen” from him, is now all-but inevitable in November, after both men continued to dominate their respective presidential primaries earlier this week.
On Tuesday both earned nominations for their respective parties in the states of Ohio, Florida, Illinois, Kansas, and Arizona.
Mr Biden is expected to use some of the hefty donations raked in by his campaign thus far to ramp up his attack ads on his rival.
According to the latest report filed with the Federal Election Commission on Wednesday, the Biden re-election campaign gained a further $21m in donations in February, closing out the month with $71m in cash on hand.
That means the Biden campaign and the Democratic National Committee together have an estimated $97.5m in cash right now, more than twice the $44.8m that Mr Trump and the Republican National Committee have in the bank.
