A major Democratic super PAC on Wednesday launched an ad campaign seeking to tie allies of former President Trump to the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection at the Capitol ahead of the anniversary of the attack.
Priorities USA Action announced a six-figure ad buy for two separate spots running in battleground states. The ads “draw a direct connection between the tragedy of January 6th and the Republicans that Donald Trump has endorsed who have explicitly vowed to subvert the will of the voters in future elections,” the group said in a press release.
The ads are targeted specifically at individuals who have consumed less political news since Trump left office, the group said.
The first ad, titled “Coup,” features footage of Trump sowing doubt about the results of the 2020 election and suggesting the attempt to undermine President Biden’s victory “was just a test run” for future attempts to subvert elections.
The second ad, titled “You Were Right,” includes images from the 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Va., and of an individual carrying a Confederate flag after storming the Capitol on Jan. 6. A narrator states “every single chaotic, disastrous day of the Donald Trump presidency reminds us that your vote to defeat him was absolutely right.”
Both ads feature a list of candidates who Trump has endorsed ahead of the 2022 elections, including Senate candidates Herschel Walker in Georgia, Rep. Ted Budd in North Carolina and Rep. Mo Brooks in Alabama, as well as House candidates Max Miller in Ohio, John Gibbs in Michigan and Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.).
“January 6th was not an isolated incident,” Priorities USA Deputy Executive Director Aneesa McMillan said in a statement. “The Republican Party has sought to delegitimize our elections by implementing voter suppression laws that disproportionately disenfranchise Black and brown Americans, intimidating voters and election officials, and promoting lies and conspiracy theories in their campaigns.
“Priorities will continue to call out these anti-democratic efforts unequivocally and communicate the facts about Donald Trump’s Republican Party to the American people,” she added.
House Democrats have planned a day’s worth of events for Thursday to mark one year since the Capitol insurrection, where multiple people died and dozens of law enforcement officers were injured after a pro-Trump mob stormed the complex to try and halt the certification of Biden’s electoral victory.
Biden will deliver remarks at the Capitol, where he is expected to condemn efforts by some Republicans to rewrite the history of that day and call out continued efforts to undermine American democracy.