New Clinton super-PAC ad targets Cruz, Trump

The super-PAC backing Hillary Clinton’s presidential bid is painting a gloomy vision of the GOP front-runners after Iowa in a new web ad shared first with The Hill. 

The ad from Priorities USA characterizes both Ted Cruz, who won the state’s caucuses Monday night, and runner-up Donald Trump as too radical while implicitly knocking Marco Rubio by not including him as a front-runner. 

The ad ticks through comments by each candidate, including Cruz’s calls to repeal ObamaCare and carpet bomb the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria until he finds out whether “sand can glow the dark.” Donald Trump’s call to ban Muslim immigration and remarks that he could shoot up a street in New York and not lose support are also mentioned. 

“Ted Cruz wants to prosecute and defund Planned Parenthood and his foreign policy plan is nothing short of reckless while Donald Trump thinks he knows more about national security than our generals and wants to ban all Muslims from coming to America,” Priorities USA spokesman Justin Barasky said in a statement. 

“These are the frontrunners for the Republican nomination and right-wing special interests are going to do everything they can to ensure one of them becomes president. Hillary Clinton is the only one strong enough to stand up to the GOP frontrunners and that’s one of many reasons she’s going to be the Democratic nominee.”

The web ad is part of a new ad buy by the group targeting New Hampshire, but it was not immediately clear how much the group spent on the new round of buys with just more than a week until the Granite State primary. Priorities USA closed January with $45 million in the bank. 

Cruz won Monday night’s caucuses with 28 percent of the vote compared to Trump’s 24 percent. But the ad doesn’t mention Rubio, who posted a strong showing for third, at 23 percent, and has been a consistent target of criticism from Clinton allies. 

Clinton squeaked out a tight win over Bernie Sanders on the Democratic side as the results spilled over into early Tuesday morning. With 99 percent of precincts reporting, Clinton leads Sanders by a margin of 50 percent to 49.6 percent.