New York Daily News

THAT SOUNDS LIKE A DON PROBLEM TO ME, SEZ JOE

Elex eligibilit­y of no interest as prez preps $250M ad blitz

- BY DAVE GOLDINER

President Biden shrugged off the controvers­y over Donald Trump being on the 2024 ballot as a political action committee supporting the incumbent’s reelection announced plans for a record-shattering $250 million ad blitz.

Flashing a grin, Biden told reporters Tuesday he wasn’t sweating Trump’s constituti­onal battle to be permitted to be on the presidenti­al ballot in the fall election.

“As far as I’m concerned, that’s fine,” Biden said as he left the White House for a fundraisin­g trip to Florida.

He was set to hold fundraiser­s in Miami and suburban Fort Lauderdale as he builds his already bulging war chest for the expected fight with Trump.

Although Republican­s have dominated statewide races in the Sunshine State, some top Democratic donors are urging Biden not to write off the state in the 2024 contest.

“I think we can win Florida,” Biden boasted to supporters in Jupiter, Fla.

Trump has had some success in state courts at turning back efforts to knock him off presidenti­al primary ballots.

The U.S. Supreme Court will likely have the final say when it hears an appeal of the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision that the 14th Amendment bars Trump from serving as president on the ground that he helped lead an insurrecti­on on Jan. 6, 2021. That was the day his supporters stormed Congress as lawmakers met to certify the 2020 election results.

In December, Maine’s secretary of state deemed Trump ineligible for the state’s GOP primary ballot on the same grounds.

“The record establishe­s that Mr. Trump, over the course of several months and culminatin­g on Jan. 6, 2021, used a false narrative of election fraud to inflame his supporters and direct them to the Capitol to prevent certificat­ion of the 2020 election and the peaceful transfer of power,” Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, a Democrat, said.

The White House has not commented on the effort to knock Trump off the ballot as Biden seeks to project confidence over his chances in a likely rematch against the 45th president.

Despite Biden’s dismal poll numbers, Democratic strategist­s believe he has a chance of defeating Trump if the former president is the GOP nominee, citing Trump’s widespread unpopulari­ty among voters.

Biden’s what-me-worry approach came on the same day as a Democratic-leaning super PAC unveiled plans for the single biggest ad blitz in U.S. presidenti­al election history to give him four more years.

The Future Forward group reserved a whopping $250 million in TV and digital ads across seven key battlegrou­nd states, including massive spending in Democratic metro areas of Phoenix and Atlanta.

“The stakes of this election could not be higher, and by Election Day every battlegrou­nd voter will know it,” said Chauncey McLean, the president of Future Forward. “We’ll run a ... data-driven program of unpreceden­ted scale to reelect Joe Biden.”

 ?? AP ?? President Biden didn’t seem to care Tuesday if former President Donald Trump got on the ballot or not in Maine. Instead, Biden was focused on a Florida fundraisin­g trip and an impending giant ad campaign.
AP President Biden didn’t seem to care Tuesday if former President Donald Trump got on the ballot or not in Maine. Instead, Biden was focused on a Florida fundraisin­g trip and an impending giant ad campaign.
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