Trump's discharge prompts Biden campaign to resume negative ads

(Image credit: BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images)

published 7 October 2020

While President Trump was hospitalized with a COVID-19 infection, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden backed down from criticizing the incumbent, and his campaign stopped running negative ads (the Trump campaign argues the moratorium never came to pass, although data suggests it did). Trump was discharged from Walter Reed hospital on Monday, though, and the Biden campaign is prepared to resume a more combative approach, Bloomberg reports, likely pleasing supporters who disapproved of the stoppage.

Mike Gwin, a spokesperson for the Biden campaign, was diplomatic in his description of the change, noting that the campaign has always been more focused on a "positive case for" Biden. But, he added, "there's a stark contrast" between the two candidates "and we will forcefully correct the record when Trump attacks and lies." 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.