Allies of Joe Biden on Wednesday launched their super-PAC supporting his presidential candidacy, arguing it’s needed to help him fight attacks from President Donald Trump as his campaign focuses on the Democratic primary.
In a press release announcing its formal launch on Wednesday, Unite the Country says Biden has the best chance to beating Trump, and the group will focus its efforts on getting that message across to voters. It plans to push back against attacks on the Democratic primary front-runner by Trump and his allies.
“We will not sit idly by while Trump spreads lies about a man who has served this country with honor and dignity,” said Steve Schale, the group’s strategist.
The super-PAC, which filed its statement of organization with the Federal Election Commission on Tuesday, is led by former aides to Biden.
Biden’s campaign has struggled to raise money, spending $2 million more in the third quarter than the $15.7 million it raised, and had just $9 million in the bank at the end of September.
Biden allies and the former vice president himself have argued that the group is necessary because he is facing what they see as unprecedented attacks from Trump, the Republican National Committee and conservative groups. They argue that, unlike his Democratic opponents, he’s simultaneously fighting the primary and the general election and needs the help of an outside group and the large sums of money it can raise.
Super-PACs can accept contributions in unlimited amounts from individuals, corporations and labor unions, but can’t coordinate their activities with candidates.
Trump’s campaign, the RNC and his allies have spent $10 million attacking Biden, the group said. That includes $8 million Trump has spent on ads making unsubstantiated charges that Biden blocked a Ukrainian prosecutor from investigating a natural gas company whose board included Biden’s son, Hunter Biden.
Unite the Country says that part of its mission is to “compare and contrast” what it calls Trump’s failures with Biden’s accomplishments. Yet it hasn’t explicitly ruled out attacking other Democratic presidential hopefuls, which Biden’s campaign manager has signaled his campaign doesn’t want to do.
“Our campaign would be extremely frustrated if the super-PAC was used to attack other Democrats,” Greg Schultz told reporters in Las Vegas on Tuesday, according to CBS News.
But just as Biden went from vehemently opposing the creation of the super-PAC in April to backing away from that opposition last week, it’s possible that even the Biden campaign could change its stance as the Democratic race tightens and he falls behind.
(c) 2019, Bloomberg · Bill Allison, Jennifer Epstein  
{Matzav.com}