Some DNC members and other prominent Democrats have conveyed a growing sense of frustration toward the national party apparatus in recent days, POLITICO reported last week. They argue that the committee must be more forceful in combating TV ads and other GOP messaging that link Biden to corruption in Ukraine without evidence.

The Biden campaign has sought to stamp out the misleading accusations, urging networks to stop booking Rudy Giuliani, the president’s personal attorney, and calling on Fox News not to run a Trump campaign ad that it claims “spreads false, definitively debunked conspiracy theories.”

CNN announced it would not air that “Biden Corruption” spot, according to The Daily Beast , while the DNC has pushed Facebook to take down false ads targeting the former vice president.

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Perez predicted Thursday that Republican efforts to smear Biden would have negligible long-term effects on his campaign, which is also under threat from the ascendant candidacy of Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

“I think people are smarter than this, and if you look at the polling to date, people understand in the Democratic primary process and elsewhere that this is a president who lies with impunity, or tries to lie with impunity,” Perez said.

“The American people are not stupid,” he added. “They understand what’s going on.”

