GOP campaigns eye ads linking Democrats to questions about Biden's mental fitness

Two new ads on the Arizona airwaves are offering a preview of how Republicans plan to tie Democrats further down the ballot to President Joe Biden following last month’s disastrous debate performance.

“Arizonans witnessed Joe Biden incoherently try to defend his failed policies that allowed in millions of illegal immigrants, forced Arizonans to pay higher grocery and gas prices and made housing unaffordable,” a narrator says in a new TV ad from Senate Republicans’ campaign arm and Republican Kari Lake, as footage of the debate plays on screen. Lake and the National Republican Senatorial Committee launched a similar spot on Thursday.

The ads appear to be some of the first on TV to directly reference the debate, where Biden struggled at times to finish thoughts and provide coherent answers. After that brief reference, the ad goes on to stress Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego’s support for Biden’s policies.

Republicans had already been launching attacks against Democrats in House and Senate races that tied them to Biden prior to the debate, focusing on largely issues such as immigration and inflation. And that’s still the plan.

“In most of these Senate battleground states, Joe Biden is very unpopular. The Senate Democratic incumbents have voted with Joe Biden 95% of the time,” NRSC Chairman Steve Daines, R-Mont., told NBC News when asked this week how the debate will affect the GOP's strategy to tie Democrats to the president.

“So it’s difficult for these Democrats to defend that record with Joe Biden. And they’re going to have to either sink or swim with Biden’s record,” Daines later added, noting that Senate races have mirrored the presidential ballot in all but one state in the last two presidential election cycles.

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