A new ad from former Vice President Joe Biden’s campaign ripped into President Donald Trump for golfing over the weekend as the coronavirus death toll in the nation approached 100,000.
The video, which Biden posted to his Twitter account on Saturday, features a bar graph tracking coronavirus-related deaths in the U.S. The bar on the graph steadily rises as footage of what appears to be Trump golfing plays in the background.
Check out the Biden ad below:
Trump fired back with a series of tweets, defending his golfing as “exercise” and slamming former President Barack Obama for also playing golf during his own administration.
Trump has repeatedly criticized Obama for playing the sport in the past. In 2014, when the second Ebola case was confirmed in the United States, Trump went on Fox News to bash the then-president for golfing.
“There are times to play and times that you can’t play. It sends the wrong signal,” he said.
The last time Trump golfed was March 8. He played multiple rounds in January, February and March as the coronavirus spread to the United States and public health officials called for an increase in testing equipment and protective gear, which didn’t arrive for several weeks or longer.
USA Today detailed the president’s behaviors in the weeks leading up to his declaration of a national emergency on March 13, saying, “he hosted large gatherings at Mar-a-Lago, went golfing, attended fundraisers, dispensed misinformation about the virus and flouted social distancing guidelines known to stem its spread.”
Later, on Memorial Day, Trump again went on a Twitter tirade over the criticism, saying, ”...I played golf over the weekend. The Fake & Totally Corrupt News makes it sound like a mortal sin - I knew this would happen!”
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