Biden campaign targets answers at Republican abortion debate in new ad

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign is launching a television ad targeting Republicans on abortion after Wednesday night’s debate — an issue Democrats think will work to their advantage in next year’s election.

The new advertisement, shared first with NBC News and aired on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” features a series of Republicans discussing the end of Roe v. Wade and calling for national limits on abortion.

The advertisement is part of a $25 million push by Biden’s campaign, this time targeting women in battleground states. It will run online and in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. 

“On Wednesday, MAGA Republicans came to the debate stage and boasted about their support to strip women of the right to make their own health care decisions,” campaign manager Julie Chávez Rodriguez said in a statement.

She said the advertisement is “the first of many” to highlight what the campaign calls Republicans’ “extreme, losing positions.”

“I’m the one that got rid of Roe v. Wade,” former President Donald Trump says in the advertisement before it cuts to a headline reading, “DeSantis signs Florida GOP’s 6-week abortion ban into law.”

Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., says in the advertisement, “I would literally sign the most the most conservative pro-life legislation that they can get through Congress.”

The reversal of Roe v. Wade remains deeply unpopular with voters, 61% of whom disapprove of the Supreme Court’s overturning the landmark decision, according to a June NBC News poll. Voters also said abortion access was too difficult — by more than a 2-to-1 ratio compared to voters who said it was too easy.

“They will never allow a national abortion ban to become law,” the advertisement’s narrator says of Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.

“As long as they are in office, decisions about your body will be made by you, not by them,” the narrator says as the advertisement shows a photo of Trump during the last word.

Wednesday’s Republican debate might influence swing voters if Democrats exploit candidates’ vulnerabilities on issues like abortion, said Rich Thau, the moderator of the Swing Voter Project.

“Most of these swing voters are pro-choice, and tonight’s messages will likely put them off when Dems highlight it,” he said Wednesday during the debate.

A Biden campaign note sent to surrogates and their teams after the debate emphasized what it called “a deeply unpopular, extreme agenda.” The note said the candidates spent the night “shouting over each other” on issues including “who has the best plan to ban abortion nationwide.”