The last week of reporting on how Speaker Ryan’s Super PAC illegally obtained a former CIA officer’s security clearance information and distributed her Social Security Number cast serious doubt on Speaker Ryan’s Super PAC’s legitimacy. Now, fact checks on their misleading ads, including against Jared Golden in Maine’s 2nd district, show that the truth, or national security, won’t get in the way of their attempt to protect out of touch Republicans at all costs.
DCCC Spokesperson Cole Leiter released the following statement:
“From being illegally given and then distributing a former CIA operative’s national security clearance application, to attacking a Marine Corps veteran for his tattoos paying homage to his service in the Marine Corps, Speaker Ryan’s Super PAC has shown it is grasping at straws in an attempt to bail out candidates who have spent years in Washington working for a failed partisan agenda, instead of protecting their constituents.”
—
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Fact-checking Republican attack ads in tight House races
By Salvador Rizzo || Washington Post
The Congressional Leadership Fund, a super PAC aligned with House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.), has been running a series of negative ads about Democratic candidates in close races across the country.
[…]
But the attack ads themselves don’t make much sense. We rounded up six 30-second spots released by the Congressional Leadership Fund over the last two weeks. These were literally the first six ads we clicked on while browsing the super PAC’s YouTube channel.
The ads almost unfailingly portrayed Democrats as dangerous and outside the mainstream. A Rhodes scholar with a Harvard Law School degree is depicted as a profane and “disturbingly radical” rapper. (He’s African American.) An ex-Marine gets an unsavory close-up of his tattoos and is accused of voting in the Maine legislature to allow others to buy tattoos with welfare funds (not quite). Two Democrats are wrapped up with terrorists in the ads, but neither claim really adds up.
For all six ads, we found that the Congressional Leadership Fund took a sliver of accurate information and spun it in a misleading way. (As the midterm elections unfold, we also will examine ads from their Democratic counterparts and welcome suggestions from readers.)
[…]
“In Augusta, Golden voted to let welfare recipients use your tax dollars to buy tattoos, tobacco, alcohol, even lottery tickets.”
— Attack ad on Jared Golden, Democratic House candidate in Maine’s 2nd District
Golden, an ex-Marine who served in Afghanistan and Iraq, has tattoos on one arm and this ad showcases them in an unappealing light.
Now a state lawmaker in Maine’s House of Representatives, Golden in 2016 voted against a bill to prohibit welfare recipients from using Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) funds to buy tattoos, tobacco, alcohol, lottery tickets and other items. (“I fully oppose any misuse of these funds,” Golden said in response to the attack ad, according to the Portland Press-Herald.)
Had this bill failed in Maine, the federal government still would have required the state to ban the use of welfare funds at “liquor stores, gaming or gambling establishments or adult entertainment venues,” or face financial penalties, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
A spokesman for Golden said he “has stated on the record he is opposed to the use of SNAP [food stamps] for such purchases,” meaning tattoos, tobacco, alcohol and other items. The attack ad also criticizes Golden for opposing President Trump’s tax cuts, to which Golden responded that he once voted in favor of cutting Maine’s income tax.
[…] The Pinocchio Test
Even by modern mudslinging standards, these ads by the Congressional Leadership Fund stand out for their dark tone and their strained relationship with the facts.
Fazli’s allegations could be solid, but they require further investigation before deciding whether Cisneros has no shame. Otherwise these attack ads are grossly misleading. We give them a cumulative rating of Four Pinocchios.