Joe Biden asks super PAC to yank heart-wrenching ad

Ad asking Joe Biden to run for president
(Image credit: YouTube/Draft Joe Biden)

Joe Biden was none too happy with his super PAC's six-figure TV ad asking him to run for president, calling it "in poor taste" according to anonymous sources who spoke with the press. The super PAC, Draft Biden, has since responded by agreeing not to run the advertisement nationally, The Boston Globe reports. Titled "My Redemption," the ad showed images of Biden's family, including his late son Beau, with a sound clip of Biden's heart-wrenching speech about his personal tragedies that he gave at an address at Yale in May. The ad ended with two words on screen: Joe, run.

"The vice president appreciates that they are trying to help," a source "close to the vice president" told The Los Angeles Times on Thursday. "But he has seen the ad and thinks the ad treads on sacred ground and hopes they don't run it."

Others have criticized the super PAC of exploiting the tragic car accident that killed Biden's wife and daughter in 1972, and the brain cancer that killed Beau Biden earlier this year.

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"Obviously we will honor his wishes," the senior adviser to the super PAC said in a statement. While Biden's supporters had planned to run the 90-second ad nationally, it had not yet been on air before it was yanked.

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Jeva Lange

Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.