Biden campaign launches ad focused on his surprise Ukraine trip in February

NEW DEHLI — President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign is highlighting the most high-stakes journey of his presidency — a surprise visit to Ukraine in February — to make the case for what it calls the “quiet strength of a true leader” while drawing a major foreign policy contrast with the GOP.

The new, 60-second advertisement will air in battleground states this weekend during the prime-time broadcast of “60 Minutes” while Biden is due to attend the G-20 Summit here, a gathering of leaders of the world’s largest economies that won’t include two geopolitical rivals, Russia’s Vladimir Putin and China’s Xi Jinping.

Biden has based his foreign policy on the idea that the 21st Century will be defined by the contest between democracies like the United States and autocracies line Russia and China. Biden has said his ability to maintain support of U.S. allies for Ukraine is one of his most difficult but significant accomplishments, and now his campaign is aiming to elevate that ahead of the 2024 race.

The ad shows visuals of Biden’s surprise visit to Kiev, noting it was the first time in modern American history that a U.S. president traveled to a war zone where it did not have significant military assets. Biden was “standing up for democracy in a place where a tyrant is waging war to take it away,” the narrator says.

“In the middle of a war zone, Joe Biden showed the world what America is made of. That’s the quiet strength of a true leader that doesn’t back down to a dictator,” it concludes.

The campaign is showcasing Biden’s support for Ukraine just as Congress is set to debate whether to continue providing significant financial support for the war-torn nation as it engages in a counteroffensive against Russian forces. 

In a statement, Biden campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez says that “the MAGA Republicans running for president have sided with dictators over democracy,” but Biden “has shown time and again that America under his leadership will always be a beacon of democracy.”

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“As President Biden heads to the G20, this ad shows the American people how a true president stands up to bullies like Vladimir Putin, instead of coddling them,” she said.

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The ad is part of a four-month, $25 million advertising campaign Biden’s campaign has already announced — a significant early injection of ad spending aiming to define the 2024 general election in his terms, all while Republicans are spending big as they compete for their party's nomination.

It’s the second time this week the campaign announced a new spot targeting a major prime-time audience.

On Tuesday the campaign announced an economic-focused ad will highlight the president’s jobs record during the first regular season NFL game Thursday night.

The “War Zone” ad will air in Phoenix, Atlanta, Detroit, Las Vegas, Raleigh, Philadelphia and Milwaukee television markets, the campaign said.