Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s campaign will pause its television ads on the 19th anniversary of the September 11th attacks this week.
Biden and President Donald Trump will both go to Shanksville, Pennsylvania on Friday where United Airlines Flight 93 crashed in a field nearby when passengers on the flight attempted to take the plane back from hijackers.
The Biden campaign confirmed on Thursday morning that they were pulling ads. The Trump campaign has not responded to questions about whether they will pull ads.
Presidential candidates have typically paused television ads on the anniversary of September 11. In 2004, the first election that followed the attacks, Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry and President George W. Bush (R) both paused ads on the anniversary of the attacks.
In 2016, both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump paused television ads on September 11.
On August 27, the nonprofit 9/11 Day called on both campaigns to suspend their television ads on the anniversary.
The group wrote to the campaigns, “We respectfully request that you instruct your campaign staff, on this one sacred day, to voluntarily suspend political advertising, as well as campaign- or partisan-related appearances and social and traditional media activities on September 11, 2020, in favor of nonpartisan expressions of service, remembrance, unity and prayer.”
Biden deputy rapid response director Mike Gwin told The Hill, “On September 11th, Vice President Biden will commemorate the anniversary of the attack on our country and will honor the incredible bravery, tragedy, and loss we experienced on that day.”
In late July, Trump’s campaign temporary suspended all their television ads as Biden’s pull numbers continued to rise. The campaign returned with a different strategy: attacking Biden as a tool of the radical left.
Trump’s team has recently cut ads that paint Joe Biden as sympathetic to rioters and looters, juxtaposing clips of Biden with cities burning around the country in the wake of protests against police violence.