Democrats troll the GOP debate in Miami with a mobile billboard attacking Trump and Republican candidates

As GOP candidates descend on Miami for the third GOP primary debate on Wednesday, the Democratic National Committee will deploy a bilingual mobile billboard to surround the venue and take a jab at the front-runner not in the room: former President Donald Trump.

The billboard message, which the Democratic National Committee shared exclusively with ABC News, focuses largely on Trump and his alleged shortcomings — ironically adding: “We almost forgot about the debate…” — in an apparent reference to how absorbed the former president is. Oxygen from the Republican race.

“As Donald Trump and the 2024 Republicans head to Florida for the next MAGA party, we are reminding voters that in addition to the chaos and bickering you will see tonight, the entire 2024 field is united around ripping off as many of our freedoms as they do,” DNC spokesman Marco Freire said in a statement. Statement to ABC News: “It is possible.”

The billboard will be displayed around downtown Miami from 2 p.m. until the end of the discussion. Trump isn’t the only target — the billboard will also attack the five candidates appearing on stage: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, and a South Carolina senator. Tim Scott. The panel briefly displays images of the five contenders’ heads on debate night, labeling their faces as “MAGA” to link them all, ultimately, to Trump.

This comes as Trump holds a rally about 10 miles away in Hialeah, which has a Cuban population, marking his third snub in the Republican National Committee debate.

On the billboard, in English and Spanish, the Democratic National Committee will focus on promoting what it calls “Trump’s extremist agenda.”

The report quotes Trump telling MSNBC in 2016 that women who have abortions should face “some form of punishment,” in addition to recent controversial comments such as calling Hezbollah, which the United States designates a terrorist organization, “very smart.” More messages explain how he denied the results of the 2020 elections, and is the first modern president to reject the peaceful transfer of power.

The panel also accuses Trump of trying to cut Medicare and Social Security every year he was in office, creating incentives to send jobs overseas and failing to provide infrastructure and lower prescription drug prices. Although the messages do not mention President Joe Biden, they highlight issues where his agenda could be in direct conflict with the Republican Party.

The organization’s press secretary, Anna Kelly, said the Republican National Committee “welcomes Democrats’ efforts to waste time and money in the red state of Florida.”

“Voters know that any of our candidates would be better than Joe Biden, which is why he continues to fall in poll after poll,” she said in a statement to ABC News.

Biden’s team ignores polls showing Trump’s lead

The cellphone messages come at a time when some Democrats may be feeling good after a promising election night for the party with electoral victories in Ohio, Virginia and Kentucky – with polls still indicating that with one year to go, Trump could beat Biden in battleground states. Main.

a New York Times/Siena College Poll Results published over the weekend showed Trump leading Biden in hypothetical matchups in Arizona, Michigan, Nevada and Pennsylvania, with Biden narrowly beating Wisconsin. a A new CNN poll was released Tuesday night It also showed that Trump has a narrow lead over Biden among registered voters.

“From our perspective, right now, this is just a snapshot in time,” said Julie Chavez Rodriguez, Biden-Harris campaign manager.

At a press conference on Tuesday, Chavez Rodriguez and a group of campaign representatives defended the president from the ballot, focusing instead on condemning “MAGA Republicans.”

“We are a year away from the elections, so the vote at this stage is unpredictable,” Chavez Rodriguez said. “I think we can look at some historical data on this, whether it’s the president [Barack] Obama this time in 2011, the title “Obama’s toast” and other things. “Previous presidents have faced similar experiences, but they went on to win re-election.”

Hours later, as Democrats saw resounding election night victories across the country, Chavez Rodriguez issued a statement noting that was a promising sign for his re-election campaign.

“Tonight, Democrats won across the country because they stood up for personal freedoms, stood up for democracy, and fought for working families,” she said. “Voters across the political spectrum once again showed up and voted for our agenda and rejected the dangerous extremism that has come to define today’s Republican Party at every level.”

ABC News’ Fritz Farrow and Gabriella Abdelhakim contributed to this report.