Biden To Resume Airing Negative Ads Against President Trump

Democratic Presidential candidate Joe Biden is set to resume his negative ads against President Donald Trump.

Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s campaign is resuming its negative advertising against President Trump, a campaign official said Wednesday, days after it pulled back from such attacks in response to the news that Mr. Trump had tested positive for the coronavirus.

With Mr. Trump now out of the hospital and tweeting attacks against Democrats including Mr. Biden, Mr. Biden’s team signaled in a statement that the campaign intended to both push an affirmative case for Mr. Biden and highlight the sharp differences between the two candidates.

“Our campaign has always been about making the positive case for Joe Biden, but there’s a stark contrast between Vice President Biden and Donald Trump and their visions for our country,” said Mike Gwin, a spokesman for Mr. Biden. “We’re going to continue to make a full-throated case for Vice President Biden, and we will forcefully correct the record when Trump attacks and lies.”

According to NYTimes, the decision to remove negative advertising from the airwaves came as Mr. Trump was hospitalized with the virus on Friday. That day, during a campaign event in Grand Rapids, Mich., Mr. Biden offered the president wishes for a speedy recovery and refrained from attacking him directly.

“This is not a matter of politics,” Mr. Biden said at the time. “It’s a bracing reminder to all of us that we have to take this virus seriously. It’s not going away automatically. We have to do our part to be responsible.”

Mr. Trump’s hospitalization had also altered the debate strategy for Senator Kamala Harris, who will face off against Vice President Mike Pence on Wednesday night. Ms. Harris’s aides and advisers had wanted her to focus in particular on Mr. Pence’s stewardship of the coronavirus task force, tying the United States’ death toll directly to him. After Mr. Trump tested positive for the virus, campaign aides said Ms. Harris planned to avoid personal attacks and commenting on the president’s condition.

The Trump campaign, for its part, has kept up its negative advertising against Mr. Biden.