Draft Biden Group Yanks Ad Focusing On Deaths Of His Family Members

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A source close to Joe Biden said the vice president does not want an ad from the super-PAC supporting his potential presidential candidacy to air, according to a report from the Los Angeles Times on Friday.

The ad, “Joe Biden: ‘My Redemption,’ ” used audio from a Yale commencement speech in which the vice president reflected on the 1972 car crash that killed his wife and daughter. Draft Biden announced the initial ad buy of $250,000 on Wednesday for the 104-second ad.

“The vice president appreciates that they are trying to help,” a person close to Biden told the Times. “But he has seen the ad and thinks the ad treads on sacred ground and hopes they don’t run it.”

In a statement to the Times, senior adviser Josh Alcorn said the ad would be pulled.

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Notable Replies

  1. Damage control for a truly awful idea.

  2. Hey Joe, remember how awful this felt? Now sacrifice the rest of your life and soul by running for president again, OK?

  3. Avatar for imkmu3 imkmu3 says:

    Any bonehead would know that this was a horrible idea for an ad. Of course, these are just any boneheads–they’re super(PAC) boneheads.

  4. Thank you.

  5. Yeah, when I saw the ad I was simultaneously moved to tears, as I always am by Biden’s story, and disgusted at the transparently manipulative exploitation of that story. (And incidentally, it probably eroded some of the sympathy and goodwill Biden’s been enjoying, so it wasn’t even politically smart.) I hoped Joe would make clear that he disapproved; glad he did.

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