Biden campaign stands by decision to ax negative ads despite calls for reversal

George Stephanopoulos and Kate Bedingfield.

(Image credit: Screenshot/Twitter/ABC)

published 4 October 2020

The campaign for former Vice President Joe Biden, the Democratic presidential nominee, announced Friday it would stop running negative ads while President Trump is hospitalized with the coronavirus, but not all of Biden's supporters agree that it's the right move with Election Day less than a month away, early voting already in progress, and the Trump campaign refusing to reciprocate, McClatchy reports.

Amanda Renteria, the political director for Hilary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign, said "Biden must share the truth and facts even if they paint Trump negatively" because "there is simply too much the public needs to know in the most important election in our lifetime," while Reed Galen, a co-founder of the Lincoln Project, said that even though Trump is in the hospital, "there's a lot of aiders and abettors out there in the U.S. Senate who have a lot to answer for" and "now is the time to finish them off."

Kate Bedingfield, Biden's deputy campaign manager, on Sunday said any adjustments to the negative ad decision will be made on the fly, but "Joe Biden is somebody who believes first and foremost in civility." She told ABC News' George Stephanopoulos that the current situation "is not about politics" and "we are all sending our best to" Trump. "For our campaign, we're going to continue to make our case for Joe Biden's style of leadership," she said. Tim O'Donnell

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Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.

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