Biden focuses on shuttered bars and clubs in a new ad faulting Trump
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Joseph R. Biden Jr. is flipping the script on President Trump, who has tried to frame the election as a choice between keeping the economy open or returning to coronavirus lockdowns under Democrats.
The plight of bars and clubs, many of which remain shuttered and are struggling for survival in the pandemic, is the focus of a new television ad that the Biden campaign aired on CBS on Sunday during an N.F.L. game.
They are places like the Blind Pig in Ann Arbor, Mich., which has been a magnet for musicians for 50 years, from Jimi Hendrix and John Lennon to Pearl Jam and Nirvana.
The music there has gone silent. Bar stools are turned upside-down. The beer taps are dry.
“Right now, it’s an empty room,” Joe Malcoun, the bar’s owner, says in the ad. “This is the reality of Trump’s Covid response. We don’t know how much longer we can survive not having any revenue.”
Mr. Malcoun says that all of the uncertainty and the lack of planning may be too much for business owners to overcome.
