Health care group launches $2M ad campaign hitting Trump in battleground states

The liberal health care advocacy group Protect Our Care is launching a $2 million ad campaign in three battleground states Wednesday criticizing President Trump’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.

The two TV ads will run in Arizona, Michigan and Wisconsin. Both ads are narrated by health care workers who say Trump’s response has led to American deaths, particularly among senior citizens.

Protect Our Care said in a statement that it hopes the ads will push Trump to take “more serious and effective” action against the pandemic.

“President Trump’s botched coronavirus response has been catastrophic for America, particularly for seniors who are dying unnecessarily as a result of his administration’s failures,” Leslie Dach, head of the group, said in a statement.

“Americans are increasingly worried about their safety, but instead of taking action, President Trump continues to downplay the threat to the citizens he swore to protect,” he added.

The first ad features a nurse, Tarik Khan, who says Trump’s response to the pandemic has “left behind” older Americans. 

“The president has basically left our older adults, he’s left our most vulnerable, extremely unprotected, and he had a duty to protect them and that didn’t happen,” Khan says in the ad.

In the second ad, ICU physician Risha Khetarpal says Trump is “clearly not listening to any of the advice of medical experts.”

“He’s spreading false information and by doing so he is allowing for more people to die from coronavirus,” Khetarpal says in the ad. “I wish that Trump would listen to the medical experts so that we can stop this pandemic.”

Trump has repeatedly spurned the advice of doctors, including those in his own administration.

The nation’s top infectious disease expert, Anthony Fauci, said Monday that the U.S. is still “knee deep” in the first wave of the pandemic and called the situation “really not good.”

On Tuesday, Trump told Gray Television’s Greta Van Susteren that he disagreed with Fauci and the country is “in a good place.”

More than 130,000 people have died of COVID-19 in the U.S., and 40 percent of those deaths are linked to nursing homes, according to an analysis by The New York Times.

Trump said in a roundtable last month that his administration “will never waver in our relentless commitment to keep America’s seniors safe.” He pointed to funding for increased inspections of nursing homes and deliveries of personal protective equipment to elder care facilities.

Recent polling has shown presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden ahead of Trump in all three states targeted by the Protect Our Care ad campaign, and leading by double digits nationally. Trump won all three states in 2016.

Sen. Martha McSally (R) faces a tight race in Arizona, and polling shows Republicans behind in their bid to capture the seat held by Sen. Gary Peters (D) in Michigan.

The advocacy group purchased ads earlier this year, including a $250,000 buy in March targeting Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) for his votes against the Affordable Care Act. Daines is up for reelection in November and faces a tough challenge from Gov. Steve Bullock (D).