It didn’t take long for Team Trump to assess the implications of this week’s Harris Poll on the coronavirus pandemic. The media keeps regurgitating Beijing’s propaganda and Democratic politicians accuse Donald Trump of racism for using the term “Chinese virus,” but the American public overwhelmingly blames China for the pandemic and supports Trump’s nomenclature.

With that in mind, the Trump campaign dropped this ad last night offering Joe Biden’s thoughts and actions on China. It’s positively brutal, and well deserved (via Townhall’s Leah Barkoukis):

So much for being the Democrats’ leading foreign policy specialist, eh? Welcome to the general election, everyone. 

China would have been a primary line of attack even if the coronavirus never emerged. The Trump campaign had already made Hunter Biden’s 2013 ride on Air Force 2 a major issue, along with his work in Ukraine, for at least a year. Leah links an October 2019 New York Post column from author Peter Schweizer as a reminder:

In 2009, Hunter co-founded a new venture, Rosemont Seneca Partners. Rosemont and Hunter were given extraordinary opportunities in China while his father was vice president. …

Joe Biden met with Hunter’s Chinese partners days before they established a new investment firm.

In December 2013, Hunter landed in Beijing aboard Air Force Two, accompanying his father on an official visit to China. Less than two weeks later, Hunter’s company, Rosemont Seneca, became a partner in a new investment company backed by the state-owned Bank of China.

Christening the new firm Bohai Harvest RST (BHR), the partners set out to raise $1 billion for the new fund.

Representatives of the Biden family have denied any connection between the vice president’s visit and Hunter’s business. However, a BHR representative told The New Yorker earlier this year that Hunter used the opportunity to introduce his father to Chinese private equity executive Jonathan Li, who became CEO of BHR after the deal’s conclusion.

The coup de grace in this ad is tying Biden to the argument that the travel ban to China was racist and “xenophobic” when first imposed. Biden opposed the travel ban and criticized it, warning as late as March 12 against “xenophobia” in our response to the pandemic. At the time of the travel ban in January, Biden accused Trump of “hysterical xenophobia” and “fearmongering” more generally:

Biden changed his position later, but by then it would have been far too late. That travel ban turned out to be very effective, as well as very popular, which is why Biden’s not mentioning “hysterical xenophobia” much these days.

How effective will this ad be? Take a look at the Harris crosstabs to get an answer to that question:

Only 28% overall of the 1,993 respondents find their reports credible, with 72% calling their data “inaccurate,” in Harris’ polite phrasing. The most favorable demo for China’s propaganda is 18-34 year olds, who split 39/61; seniors are the least open to it of all demos, 14/86. …

By the way, the crosstabs on China’s responsibility are even more brutal. The only demo not to have 75% or more blaming China is Democrats, who still split 67/33. And, for the record, majorities in each wave of this poll support Donald Trump calling it the “Chinese virus,” with the latest wave (4/3-5) the biggest at 58/42.

This is a bad year to have been a Beijing apologist. Team Trump will beat Biden like a drum over this all year long — and if they don’t, it will be the worst case of political malpractice since, er, Hillary Clinton forgot Wisconsin existed.