Some of President Trump allies and advisers have expressed concern that the daily coronavirus briefings Trump continues to hold are hurting his polling numbers and providing fodder for former Vice President Joe Biden's presidential campaign. Biden's campaign released a new ad on Monday featuring, you guessed it, Trump's comments from the coronavirus briefings, this batch focused on his renunciation of responsibility for the COVID-19 pandemic response, teeing off President Harry S. Truman's famous, folksy leadership motto: "The Buck Stops Here."
"Donald Trump thought the job was about tweets and rallies and big parades," the Biden ad's narrator intones. "He never thought he'd have to protect nearly 330 million Americans, so he didn't."
Biden made the same point more succinctly in a tweet Monday night.
The COVID-19 pandemic has dimmed Biden's visibility even as he became the presumptive Democratic nominee and Trump has jumped into the spotlight, for better or worse. But Biden's campaign announced Monday night that he raised more money than Trump in March, hitting a campaign high of $46.7 million.
Trump has yet to announce his March total, but the Republican National Committee has said it and Trump's campaign jointly raised $63 million in March versus $79.4 million for Biden and the Democratic National Committee. Both Trump and the RNC have much more cash on hand than Biden and the DNC and it's not clear how the lockdowns and resulting lack of campaign events will affect either candidate's fundraising.