Conservative group launches $1 million anti-Trump ad campaign in Iowa
Conservative group launches $1 million anti-Trump ad campaign in Iowa
By Sean Sullivan September 15 at 10:25 AM
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Trump, targeted. (Tom Pennington/Getty Images)
The national conservative group Club for Growth announced a $1 million ad campaign attacking Donald Trump in Iowa on Tuesday, marking the most direct and well-funded attempt from within the Republican Party yet to take down its presidential front-runner.
Club for Growth President David McIntosh unveiled a pair of TV ads for reporters at a news conference in Washington. One accuses Trump of being a closet liberal and shows images of Democratic contenders Bernie Sanders and Hillary Rodham Clinton. The other charges Trump "supports eminent domain abuse."
McIntosh said the ads, which are being aired by Club for Growth Action, the organization's super PAC, will hit TV airwaves later this week.
"He's playing [voters] for chumps," McIntosh said of Trump.
Here are videos of the ads:
The ads were released a day before the second Republican debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif. Trump will be positioned on center stage during the debate, reflecting his lead in the polls.
They also come after a sustained effort by the Club for Growth to persuade skeptical donors that it is a good idea to attack Trump. The Washington Post reported earlier this month that the group, which has feuded with Trump for months, started asking top Republican donors in recent weeks to give donate money to fund attacks against Trump. But some GOP donors were skeptical of the plan, fearing it could fuel Trump’s outsider appeal.
McIntosh said that on the whole, donors are "very supportive."
The ad campaign could be mutually beneficial. The Club has relied heavily upon picking fights with other Republicans in recent years. And Trump has made running against the GOP establishment a centerpiece of his campaign.
Trump has insisted that the Club for Growth is attacking him because he refused to write them a $1 million check after a meeting with him earlier this year. Club for Growth officials says Trump's team requested the meeting.
“They came to my office, the president of the Club for Growth came to my office; he asked for a million dollars," Trump said in a recent interview with The Washington Post. "He asked for it in writing, just to show you how truly stupid he is. I said, ‘You must be kidding.’ I had no interest in doing it. ... We told them no, and immediately thereafter, he came after Trump.”
Trump campaigned before thousands in a professional sports arena in Dallas on Monday night. He emphasized his hard-line views on immigration, including his desire to build a wall on the nation's southern border and deport all illegal immigrants.
Many Republicans fear his views are damaging the party's brand.
McIntosh said his group does not take a position on immigration.
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