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In October 2020, readers asked Snopes to look into news reports that claimed the campaign of U.S. Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden had published and then withdrawn an ad that misled viewers by presenting a wealthy investor as a struggling bar owner. On Oct. 21, Fox News reported that: Similar articles were published by New York Post and Daily Mail. After the Biden campaign withdrew the ad from its YouTube channel, the Washington Free Beacon suggested the ad had been pulled because an earlier Free Beacon article had exposed Malcoun's other business interests and sources of income. The Daily Caller also claimed the Biden campaign had withdrawn the ad because Malcoun was revealed to be a wealthy tech investor, and a Trump campaign spokesperson cited that report, saying the Biden campaign pulled the ad because they got caught. The ad contained some language that left open the interpretation that Malcoun was presenting his and his family's personal financial health as being dependent on the survival of his bar, an impression that would appear to be mistaken. However, both Malcoun and the Biden campaign said their intention was to use Malcoun as a vehicle for broader concerns about the damage done to small businesses and local communities by what they presented as President Donald Trump's mismanagement of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. Malcoun's business interests were already a matter of public record before the ad was made, and the Biden campaign told Snopes it had pulled the ad due to harassment and threats against Malcoun and his family, not because the campaign had been caught in any dishonesty. The ad in question was first published on Oct. 18, 2020, and reportedly aired during several NFL games that day. The entire one-minute script consists of Malcoun's voice. A transcript can be read, and the ad viewed in full, below: Two phrases uttered by Malcoun could have given viewers the impression that his and his family's financial survival was at stake. First, he said, I don't know how much longer we can survive, not having any revenue. Viewers could readily have interpreted we to mean my family and I, whereas Malcoun actually appears to have been referring to the staff of the Blind Pig, as a whole. Secondly, Malcoun said, My only hope — for my family and this business and my community — is that Joe Biden wins this election. This could also have given some viewers the impression that Malcoun was claiming his own family's financial well-being was at risk, whereas he actually appears to have meant that, in his firm opinion, the best outcome for his family, the staff, the patrons of the bar, and his local community in Ann Arbor, would be a Biden victory in November. Malcoun set his Twitter account to private following a backlash to the ad, but first explained his role in a series of tweets, writing: The Biden campaign told Snopes that the purpose of the ad was not to highlight the impact of COVID-19 restrictions on the Blind Pig, or Malcoun, in particular, but to use the venue as an example of the damage suffered by many important local businesses around the country due to what they presented as Trump's mismanagement of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic and the American economy. The criticisms of the ad as misleading were based on what some observers presented as a discrepancy between elements of Malcoun's script, and the reality of his other business affairs and his family's inherited wealth. Malcoun owns or runs other businesses, including a co-working space company called Cahoots, and a venture capital fund called Nutshell. Malcoun has described himself as an angel investor in interviews and said he and his wife inherited a substantial sum of money from his wife's grandfather. Within days of its first airing, the Biden campaign withdrew the ad from circulation and set the campaign's YouTube video to private, meaning it was no longer viewable by the public. The Washington Free Beacon and The Daily Caller both claimed that decision was taken because Malcoun's business affairs had been revealed. Ken Farnaso, deputy national press secretary for Trump's reelection campaign, cited that Daily Caller article in an email sent to the Detroit Metro Times, in which he, too, claimed the ad had been removed because the Biden campaign got caught: However, the Biden campaign told Snopes they were already aware of Malcoun's business affairs and his family's inherited wealth before the ad was aired, and they had pulled it from circulation because Malcoun and his family had been receiving threats and were being harassed. Campaign spokesperson Bill Russo wrote: This explanation for the withdrawal of the ad from circulation is corroborated by the fact that details of Malcoun's other business interests and his family's inherited wealth were all a matter of public record long before the Biden campaign ad was recorded or broadcast. In fact, the very sources that the Free Beacon and The Daily Caller relied on in order to purportedly reveal Malcoun's business interests were published in 2017 and 2018.
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