Democratic super PAC launches new ad blasting Trump for ‘trying to end’ ObamaCare

Priorities USA, the main super PAC backing former Vice President Joe Biden’s presidential bid, released an ad Thursday attacking President Trump over his efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

The PAC, which has typically focused on the president’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, released the ad as Biden is set to deliver remarks about the fate of ObamaCare. 

The ads, which are set to air in battleground states Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan, say that “even now,” amid the ongoing pandemic crisis, the president is “trying to end the Affordable Care Act.”

“Health care costs would skyrocket, and insurance companies would again be allowed to discriminate against people with preexisting conditions,” the ad warns. 

NEW TV AD: In the middle of a pandemic, Donald Trump wants to:
❌ Dismantle the ACA
❌ Eliminate protections for pre-existing conditions
❌ Raise health care costs for working families

Trump is failing on health care. pic.twitter.com/X0B3PTguAL

— Priorities USA (@prioritiesUSA) June 25, 2020

The new ad comes as the Trump campaign sued Priorities USA this week for “knowingly and intentionally” manipulating audio clips of Trump to make it seem as if the president had called the coronavirus a “hoax” and downplayed the threat posed by the pandemic.

The Trump administration is expected to file a brief on Thursday in support of the legal urging the Supreme Court to strike down ObamaCare, even as coronavirus cases climb across the U.S. and soaring unemployment forces millions off employer-based health plans. 

The stakes are high for the GOP as the president faces increased scrutiny for his response to the crisis and polls in major swing states show him trailing Biden. Democrats in Congress and Biden himself have campaigned on expanding the ACA. 

“It’s easy to see how Democrats can out-message the GOP: lay out the coronavirus statistics and say President Trump and fill-in-the-blank Republican candidate want to take away your health care,” GOP strategist Doug Heye told The Hill. “It’s an argument Democrats have been making for the last three or four election cycles. But when a death count is ticking up every single day, it’s going to highlight health care as an issue.

The attempts to repeal ObamaCare follows a pattern of the Trump administration trying to overturn a number of Obama-era policies, such as the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which the Supreme Court upheld last week.

The Hill has reached out to the White House for comment.