Washington Post: “As Democrats escalate their general-election campaign against the president, they have targeted his failure to act urgently to deflect the damage the coronavirus is wreaking over lives and the economy, as he brushed aside intelligence briefings and warnings from health officials while holding fundraisers and gathering thousands of his followers at rallies.”

“Their greatest ammunition? Trump’s own comments, aired daily in the marathon coronavirus briefings where he commands center stage.”

“A leading Democratic super PAC is reserving $17 million worth of digital ads in key battleground states to start after the Democratic National Convention in July and run through Election Day in November,” McClatchy reports.

“The online ad blitz from Priorities USA is slated for Arizona, Florida, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania — a quintet of swing states that strategists in both parties expect to be at the center of the general election.”

Not surprisingly, those are the five Toss Up states on the consensus electoral map.

“Michael Bloomberg’s presidential campaign is hiring hundreds of workers in California to post regularly on their personal social-media accounts in support of the candidate and send text messages to their friends about him,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“The effort, which could cost millions of dollars, is launching ahead of California’s March 3 primary and could later be deployed nationwide… It is one of the most unorthodox yet by the heavy-spending billionaire and blurs the lines between traditional campaign organizing and the distribution of sponsored content.”

Justin Peters watched 185 campaign ads from Michael Bloomberg.

“Here’s what I learned: For one thing, that watching nearly 200 campaign ads in a short period is sort of like being brainwashed, which I suppose is the goal of all advertising. At this point, I wouldn’t say I’m aboard the Bloomberg train, but I think I would feel a little less uncomfortable buying a ticket. Many of the ads are very good. Many more of them are not. The quality of any individual ad, though, is ultimately less important than the breadth of the entire corpus. It’s not that Bloomberg doesn’t have some good ideas—he does—or that he would not be a more competent executive than our current president. The point is that the campaign’s goal is to very quickly achieve messaging saturation in lieu of the monthslong ground game Bloomberg didn’t bother to run. I hate to say it, but it’s working!”

Axios: “Today, the campaign is testing new strategies on several dozen platforms, including YouTube, Google, ad exchanges, publisher networks and conservative podcasts. The goal is to be less dependent on Facebook — though the platform will still play a crucial role in the Trump 2020 strategy.”

“The Trump campaign began buying ads on conservative podcasts last spring, including shows hosted by staunch Trump allies Charlie Kirk and Laura Ingraham. The goal is to get Trump supporters more engaged in the months before Election Day.”

“Mike Bloomberg is spending so much money on Facebook ads that he has surpassed President Trump, the reigning king of the social media realm,” NBC News reports.

“Bloomberg spent more than $1 million a day on average over the past two weeks on Facebook. That’s five times more than Trump spent during the same period — and more than three times what Trump spent per day during his victorious fall 2016 campaign.”

Daily Beast: “The Bloomberg campaign has quietly begun a campaign on Tribe, a ‘branded content marketplace’ that connects social media influencers with the brands who want to advertise to their followers, to pitch influencers on creating content highlighting why they love the former New York City mayor—for a price.”

“For a fixed $150 fee, the Bloomberg campaign is pitching micro-influencers—someone who has from 1,000 to 100,000 followers, in industry parlance—to create original content ‘that tells us why Mike Bloomberg is the electable candidate who can rise above the fray, work across the aisle so ALL Americans feel heard & respected.'”

Mike Bloomberg premiered his newest ad attacking President Trump during Fox & Friends, the president’s favorite television show.

A half an hour later, Trump exploded in a Twitter rant aimed at “Mini Mike Bloomberg.”

Politico: “It’s the latest example of how a plank of Bloomberg’s campaign revolves around agitating the president.”

According to FiveThirtyEight, Michael Bloomberg has spent $180 million on campaign ads and Tom Steyer has spent $120 million.

The amount spent by all other Democrats combined is just $43 million.

“One of the leading Democratic super PACs, Priorities USA, will spend $50 million more than previously announced against President Trump before the Democratic National Convention, with plans to make nearly $30 million in TV ad reservations in the coming days,” the New York Times reports.

Greg Schultz, campaign manager for Joe Biden, ripped Facebook after the social media giant said it would continue to allow political candidates to lie in advertisements on its platform.

Said Schultz: “Purposefully allowing and profiting off of the spreading of lies is a serious threat to the democratic process.”