By Anne Cullen

Law360 (March 27, 2020, 7:14 PM EDT) -- The largest Democratic super PAC is broadening the reach of an ad criticizing President Donald Trump's response to the COVID-19 crisis a day after Trump's campaign threatened to sue TV stations airing the message.

Priorities USA announced Thursday that it is infusing an additional $600,000 into the effort to secure airtime in Arizona, on top of the $6 million it has already spent buying ad space in Florida, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

"The fact that Trump is going to such great lengths to keep the American people from hearing his own words adds to the urgency of communicating them far and wide," said Guy Cecil, the Chairman of Priorities USA, in a press release Thursday. "Trump doesn't want voters to know the truth. We will not be intimidated."

The organization's executive director, Patrick McHugh, added Friday that Trump's campaign and backers are resorting to "desperate threats to keep Americans from hearing the truth about his failed COVID response that has put us all at risk."

"The ads are still running, and Priorities USA will continue ensuring voters hear the truth," McHugh said in an email to Law360. 

Special counsel for Trump's re-election campaign, Alex W. Cannon, fired off cease-and-desist letters to TV stations on Wednesday, threatening legal action if they continue to air the message and warning that stations airing the ads could put their licenses to operate at risk.

Citing Federal Communications Commission precedent addressing broadcast licensees' obligations, he wrote, "Your failure to remove this deceptive ad may be 'probative of an underlying abdication of licensee responsibility' that could put your station's license in jeopardy."

The ad, dubbed "Exponential Threat," quotes Trump calling the outbreak of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, a "hoax." The message also cites Trump assuring the public that he has the outbreak under control and downplaying the threat as "one person coming in from China."

The U.S. leads the world in the number of diagnosed COVID-19 cases as of Thursday afternoon, surpassing much larger China and heavily afflicted Italy. The disease has now infected more than 85,000 people in the U.S, with confirmed cases spanning across all 50 states and territories, according to the CDC's latest figures. The death toll has climbed past 1,200, the CDC reports. 

But Trump's campaign insists that the ad takes his statements out of context, as they argue that the president was referring to Democrats' critiques of his response as a hoax, not the virus. Cannon warned TV stations in Wednesday's letters that if they continued to air the "deliberately false and misleading" message, the campaign "will have no choice but to pursue all legal remedies available to it in law and in equity."

"We will not stand idly by and allow you to broadcast false, deceptive and misleading information concerning President's Trump's health care positions without consequence," Cannon wrote.

Representatives for the FCC, Trump's campaign and presidential hopefuls Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders did not respond to requests for comment Friday afternoon. The National Association of Broadcasters declined to comment on the matter.

--Editing by Gemma Horowitz.

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