WASHINGTON — Donald Trump’s campaign debuted an online ad Wednesday featuring extensive praise of the president’s response to the coronavirus pandemic from one of his fiercest critics: California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
The ad, which will run online on Facebook and YouTube in 17 states, starts and ends with Newsom thanking the Trump administration for its help in combating the spread of the novel coronavirus, which has reached every state and killed more than 55,000 people in the United States.
“Conversation, commitment – promise made, promise kept,” Newsom said in the clip, taken from a press conference the governor held last Thursday.
The new digital ad includes other Democratic governors, including New York’s Andrew Cuomo and New Mexico’s Michelle Grisham.
But clips of Newsom are woven throughout the ad, reflecting the newfound relationship the two men have developed since the outbreak began – and the political rewards Trump could reap by securing praise from the Democratic governor of the nation’s most populous state.
Newsom has battled the administration over immigration and climate policy since the outset of the Trump presidency. But both have publicly extolled their working relationship over the past two months, since the first case of person-to-person spread of the coronavirus was identified in Sacramento.
“Even Democratic governors recognize President Trump’s tireless work to combat the coronavirus and his commitment to protecting all Americans,” Sarah Matthews, deputy press secretary for the Trump campaign, said in an email.
The campaign is preparing to mount a broad defense of Trump’s response to the crisis, amid dropping poll numbers and mounting criticism from Democrats that the president failed to act on warning signs that a pandemic loomed.
Newsom’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
———
©2020 McClatchy Washington Bureau
Visit the McClatchy Washington Bureau at www.mcclatchydc.com
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.