Trump Fires Back After Biden Ad Attacks Him For Golfing During Pandemic

TOPLINE

President Trump defended himself and lashed out at former Vice President Joe Biden, the likely Democratic nominee, after the Biden campaign released an ad criticizing Trump for golfing over the weekend, as the country approaches 100,000 coronavirus deaths.

KEY FACTS

Big Number:

97,722: That’s the total number of confirmed coronavirus deaths in the United States, which means that the total number of lives claimed by Covid-19 in the U.S. is higher than the number of troops who died in the Vietnam conflict and higher than casualties from the Korean War, Gulf War, Afghanistan War, Iraq War and 9/11 combined. 

Tangent:

Before officially entering the political arena, Trump was often critical of then-President Obama for spending too much time golfing. Back in October of 2014, Trump tweeted, “Can you believe that,with all of the problems and difficulties facing the U.S., President Obama spent the day playing golf.Worse than Carter.” Later that month, he added, “President Obama has a major meeting on the N.Y.C. Ebola outbreak, with people flying in from all over the country, but decided to play golf!” 

Critical Quote:

“When you’re president, you sort of say, like, I’m going to sort of give it up for a couple of years and I’m gonna really focus on the job,” Trump said in an interview on Fox and Friends in 2014. “There are times to play and there are times that you can’t play. It sends the wrong signal, but he plays a lot of golf.”

Key Background:

With election season quickly approaching, it’s quite safe to assume that Trump and Biden will continue to spar with each other publically. Dating back to the 2016 primaries, Trump has been very successful using social media to take down rivals and fire up his base. Recently, he’s been aggressively promoting “#Obamagate” via Twitter and calling for an investigation over the unmasking tied to the Gen. Michael Flynn case. On Monday morning, Trump tweeted, “Some stories about the fact that in order to get outside and perhaps, even a little exercise, I played golf over the weekend. The Fake & Totally Corrupt News makes it sound like a mortal sin – I knew this would happen! …They are sick with hatred and dishonesty. They are truly deranged!”

Further Reading:

Trump slams Biden ad critical of golf outing (Fox News) 

FLASHBACK: Watch Trump Rip on Obama for Golfing At the Start of the Ebola Crisis (Mediate) 

Trump hits back at Joe Biden campaign ad criticizing him for golfing amid pandemic – claiming it’s his ‘exercise’ (The Hill)