As the Senate gets ready for its turn to talk impeachment of President Donald Trump the Democrats looking to find support in getting four members of the GOP to join them to reach the 51 votes required to make happen are getting help from of all places former Bush-era conservatives.
The Lincoln Project headed by George Conway and a group of never Trumpers has released a new ad this week that describes Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) as “just another Trump servant: weak, frightened, impotent.” The well-crafted ad warns Gardner that he is heading for a humiliating defeat in November, with polls showing him behind potential Democratic challenger John Hickenlooper by double digits in their race this fall.
The spot points out “So scared of his tweets you’ll do anything Trump orders: blocking witnesses, stonewalling to keep Trump’s corruption secret, breaking your oath to follow the Constitution and the law, putting Trump over Colorado every time.”
Gardner is pegged as one four of the most vulnerable Republican senator on the ballot this year, a status taunted in the ad.
“Hey, Cory Gardner,” the video’s narrator says, “ask yourself, why are you losing? Why do the polls show you headed for humiliating defeat in November? Because Colorado trusted you to work for us, not Donald Trump.”
In an interview with The Denver Post, the group behind the ad spoke out on why they felt the need to produce it. “Cory Gardner is a prime example of the kind of weakness that Republicans show in the face of Donald Trump,” said Lincoln Project spokeswoman Jennifer Horn, a former chairman of the New Hampshire GOP, in a statement. “As he faces an uphill battle for re-election this year, Sen. Gardner has shown he’s willing to put the president before the Constitution and his responsibility to the people of Colorado.”
The digital ad has indeed had quite a few views Horn told Colorado Politics the PAC was paying for a “targeted digital ad buy in Colorado” to put the video in front of voters, adding: “Our mission is a simple one — defeat Trumpism at the ballot box. That means exposing those elected Republicans who have placed protecting a corrupt president above their oath of office. Anyone who will not defend the Constitution does not belong in elected office.”
The Lincoln Project’s advisory board includes national strategists Steve Schmidt, John Weaver and Mike Madrid, media consultant Rick Wilson, and outspoken anti-Trump attorney George Conway, the husband of White House counselor Kellyanne Conway.
Meanwhile, billionaire businessman and Democratic Presidential Nominee Michael Bloomberg has to date spent nearly $100 million on his national campaign and he won’t show up on a ballot until South Carolina. His ads are seen everywhere and they seem to have had an impact both on President Trump but also on GOP leaders.
According a story in Vanity Fair, Bloomberg, speaking at a Texas barbecue restaurant on Saturday, said that if he’s knocked out of the race, he’ll direct future funds toward attacking Trump, supporting whoever wins the nomination—even if that person happens to be Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren,whom he basically regards as Communists.
“I really don’t agree with them,” he said, of the progressive candidates, “but I’d still support them, yes, because compared to Donald Trump that’s easy.” He said that he has no plans to run any negative ads against any Democratic candidates, focusing all of his energy on trolling 45.
In addition to funneling cash to whoever goes head-to-head with the president, Bloomberg would seemingly donate much of the gigantic, more-than-800-person team he’s assembled to the nominee, along with other resources.
So, 2020 campaign is seeing President Donald Trump getting attacks not only from the Democrats but from some Republicans as well. Welcome to the campaign.