The Biden campaign released a new ad Friday focused on former President Donald Trump‘s remarks that he would “encourage” Russia to do “whatever the hell they want” with NATO countries that fall short on defense spending.
In the minute-long spot, titled “Walk Away,” the campaign highlights NATO’s significance as “the most important military alliance in the world.” The commercial comes on the same day as news of the death of prominent Vladimir Putin critic Alexei Navalny in a Russian prison.
“Every president since Truman has been a rock solid supporter of NATO,” the narrator said, “except for Donald Trump.”
“Trump wants to walk away from NATO; he’s even given Putin and Russia the green light to attack America’s allies,” the ad continued.
The six-figure ad campaign will be three weeks long, lasting through Super Tuesday, and will run in battleground states Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania.
The video includes footage from a recent Trump rally where Trump made the NATO remarks.
“Walk Away” will appear as digital ads on Yahoo Native and YouTube as well as static and video ads on Meta, per the campaign. There will also be search ads on Google around the comments Trump made.
“President Biden is right: Trump’s attempts to appease dictators like Putin are ‘dumb,’ ‘shameful,’ ‘dangerous,’ and ‘un-American,’” said Biden campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez in a statement. “The bottom line is that the only person Donald Trump is loyal to is Donald Trump – not to our allies and certainly not to the American people. And while he thinks that sucking up to Putin and other dictators will make him strong, the American people know him for who he truly is: a coward and a loser.”
The foreign policy-focused ad campaign comes as lawmakers question the mysterious circumstances surrounding Navalny’s death.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Trump’s campaign pointed the Washington Examiner to a Truth Social post in response to a request for comment regarding Navalny’s death. However, Trump’s post, which blamed Biden for “Misery, Destruction, and Death” around the world, did not mention either Navalny or Putin directly.
In a White House speech, Biden struck a different tone, telling reporters, “Make no mistake: Putin is responsible for Navalny’s death.”