Election 2020: Lindsey Graham Praises Biden For 'Best Campaign Ad Ever'

The one-minute video ad begins with Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, in a 2015 clip talking about incumbent President Donald J. Trump. Graham says, “What is Donald Trump’s campaign about? He’s a race-baiting, xenophobic, religious bigot. You know how you make America great again? Tell Donald Trump to go to hell.”

The next scene shows Graham seated in an automobile commenting about Trump’s likely opponent in the 2020 presidential race-- former VP Joseph Biden to Barack Obama. Graham says, “The bottom line is if you can’t admire Joe Biden as a person … you’ve got a problem. You need to do some self-evaluation.”

The end of the ad spends 15 seconds showing Trump in a series of clips, some sped up to show Trump as a buffoon, a bully, and unfit for re-election.

The ad was sponsored by a newly formed group called Republican Voters Against Trump (RVAT). Graham may be the topic of the ad, but the target is clearly Trump.

So, what is happening? Graham will face Democratic challenger Jaime Harrison in November for the North Carolina senate race. Harrison is African-American and a former top aide to Democratic Representative Jim Clyburn. The racial tensions in the country may make the race closer but Graham is favored to hold the seat that he has held since 2003.

Graham’s opponents are trying to paint Graham as a political “chameleon” who went from the person in the ad to a staunch Trump supporter.

RVAT was formed by 3 people:

• Sarah Longwell is a Republican political strategist and publisher and is a prominent voice in the Never Trump Movement that opposed the current president’s nomination in 2016.
• Bill Kristol is a neoconservative political analyst and Trump critic who sent a Twitter message in February that expressed his anti-Trump fervor, “Not presumably forever; not perhaps for a day after Nov. 3, 2020; not on every issue or in every way until then. But for the time being one has to say: We are all Democrats now.” according to The Blaze.
• Jeb Bush, the former Republican Governor of Florida and the son and brother to two presidents may have the biggest political bone to pick with Trump. His 2016 campaign for President cost well over $100 million and it was only able to win four delegates. He also played into Trump’s hand as the “establishment politician” that Trump vowed to “drain the swamp” of.

The buzzword “optics” refers to “the way a situation looks to the general public” according to Macmillan online dictionary. The optics may appear grim for Graham and for Trump who may be called on to explain Graham's past comments.

It should be plain to Trump’s foes and relief to Graham to know that the traditional strategy of creating negative optics did not work in 2016 and will likely not work in 2020. For what it’s worth, the ad was described by Harvard University economics professor Greg Mankiw as “perhaps the greatest campaign ad ever.” It is scheduled to run in several states on Fox News over the next few weeks.