Joe Biden Promises ‘Fresh Start’ After 48 Years; Borrows Pete Buttigieg Slogan

A new ad by former Vice President Joe Biden promises a “fresh start” — after nearly 48 years in politics — and appears to borrow the slogan of former rival Pete Buttigieg, who recently joined Biden’s transition team.

The ad, released Tuesday, depicts Biden, 77, as offering a “fresh start” after four years of President Donald Trump.

Biden arrived in Washington nearly a half-century ago, in 1973, going on to serve for 36 years in the Senate and two terms in the Obama administration.

The 60-second ad declares that the election is a chance to put the “darkness” of the past four years aside. It says that Trump “brings out the worst in America.”

It includes footage of violence in Democrat-run cities, including Portland, where Biden called rioters who attacked federal officers “peaceful protesters” in July. The ad appears to blame Trump for the violence, suggesting that it will stop if he is replaced.

Biden also promises to “make the wealth and corporations pay their fair share,” which is language he uses for raising taxes.

Buttigieg, the former South Bend, Indiana, mayor, joined the Biden transition team this weekend, planning for a new administration in the event Biden wins. He has long used the slogan “a fresh start.”

Buttigieg produced an ad in the Democratic primary that promised “a fresh start”:

He used the term when he made an unsuccessful bid in 2017 to lead the Democratic National Committee:

During the primary, Buttigieg cast Biden as a relic from the politics of the past.

“I hear Vice President Biden say that this is no time to take a risk on someone new,” he said at one event, as quoted by Time. “But history has shown us that the biggest risk we could take with a very important election coming up is to look to the same Washington playbook and recycle the same arguments.”

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). His new book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.