Biden to unveil COVID-focused ad during World Series featuring Arizona salon owner: 'I'm afraid of dying'
As new cases of COVID-19 continue to rise in many parts of the United States, former Vice President Joe Biden's campaign is rolling out a new ad during tonight's World Series game that features an Arizona small business owner who criticizes President Donald Trump's response to the pandemic, saying the continued spread of the virus makes her fear for her own life.
"Every day seems to be getting a little worse, and I don't think [Trump] has a way to get this under control. I mean, I'm afraid of dying. I'm afraid of not seeing my kid grow up," says Dina, a salon owner in Arizona, in the 60-second ad that will debut nationally on Friday night during Game 3 of the World Series.
"Looking at the numbers rising every day, knowing somebody who died, that kind of thing just starts hitting home really hard. This is serious," adds Dina, who's previously appeared in ads supporting Biden's campaign. "It starts at the top. It starts with Donald Trump. Even when Sept. 11th happened, I felt like we were united as a country. It is not like that now. He has divided all of us."
The ad comes the day after Biden and Trump clashed during the final presidential debate in Nashville, Tennessee, over the federal government's response to the pandemic, and after Biden's speech this afternoon in Wilmington, Delaware, laying out how his administration would work to reduce virus spread.
"As many as 210,000 avoidable deaths," Biden said on Friday, referring then to Trump, "but there's not much he would do differently? The United States is 4% of the entire world's population, yet we make up 20% of all the deaths worldwide. If this is a success, what does failure look like?"
The recent uptick in cases includes a record number of new cases in nine states reported on Thursday. Trump has repeatedly sought to portray a much rosier picture of the nation's battle with a virus that has claimed over 220,000 American lives.
"It will go away, and as I say, we're rounding the turn. We're rounding the corner. It's going away," Trump said at Thursday's debate.
The new ad is the third that the Biden campaign, which smashed fundraising records this cycle, is running during this year's World Series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Tampa Bay Rays.
Biden is set to campaign in Pennsylvania on Saturday, while Trump, continuing a torrid pace on the trail as well, is scheduled to hold three rallies in North Carolina, Ohio and Wisconsin, a state that has seen a rapid rise in COVID-19 cases in recent weeks.
