Lincoln Project Won't Pull Anti-Trump Ads, Vows to 'Defeat Trumpism' After President's COVID Diagnosis

Democratic nominee Joe Biden is taking down attack campaign ads in the wake of President Donald Trump's COVID-19 diagnosis, but the Lincoln Project won't be following suit.

"Our ads will stay up," Lincoln Project's senior communications adviser Ryan Wiggins told Newsweek Friday evening. "We will continue to prosecute the campaign against a Trump second term and work to defeat the republicans senators who enable him."

Wiggins said the political action committee's upcoming ads will focus "both" on policy issues and Trump's character. "We will defeat Trump and Trumpism (and its adherents) at the ballot box next month," she said.

Their decision comes after Biden's campaign told the Associated Press that they would remove negative ads about Trump in the wake of his diagnosis. But Trump's campaign have already suggested that they won't return the favor.

The Lincoln Project is a conservative group opposed to Trump's presidency and re-election. They have released countless ads—some drenched in irony and others serious—attacking the president, his inner circle and his GOP allies.

Since the first 2020 presidential debate in Cleveland, Ohio on Tuesday, the committee has ramped up their attacks on the president's campaign with an influx of new ad videos. Trump claimed that Hunter Biden was "thrown out of the military" for using cocaine during the debate. The next day, the president's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., called Hunter Biden a "crackhead" who could bring down his father's campaign.

One Lincoln Project parody video shared on Thursday showed Trump Jr. taking cocaine as Tony Montana in a scene from Scarface.

"The Lincoln Project inadvertently posted the wrong [Donald Trump Jr.] video," the group said in a tweet. "This is the correct clip. Our sincerest apologies for the oversight."

After news of the president and first lady Melania Trump's diagnosis, the group urged his campaign to begin contact tracing the thousands of supporters that attended his recent rallies.

"The campaign has the obligation to begin contact tracing for the thousands of followers who have attended Trump's maskless rallies," the Lincoln Project wrote in a statement.

Trump has long played down the severity of the COVID outbreak. Speaking at a political event on Thursday evening, hours before his COVID announcement, the president said, "the end of the pandemic is in sight, and next year will be one of the greatest years in the history of our country."

The Lincoln Project told voters on Friday that Trump's administration "ignored and marginalized scientific and medical experts, placed political hacks in positions at HHS and elsewhere to prevent the American people from receiving accurate information about the pandemic, and spread false information about spurious cures."

The president will spend the next few days in Walter Reed Hospital as the first lady quarantines at the White House. Their physician, Sean Conley, said both are displaying mild symptoms.

"As of this afternoon the President remains fatigued but in good spirits," she added. "He's being evaluated by a team of experts, and together we'll be making recommendations to the President and First Lady in regards to next best steps."