It seems senior Republicans can hardly run fast enough in the current stampede to distance themselves from their ever more toxic presidential candidate, Donald Trump.
Now four congressmen and one Congress hopeful are threatening to sue TV stations over a set of ads, produced by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which name and criticize them as Trump supporters.
The frantically fleeing fugitive five are:
- Bob Dold – Ill.
- Mike Coffman – Colo.
- David Jolly – Fla.
- John Katko – N.Y.
- Brian Fitzpatrick, running for an open seat in Pennsylvania.
The offended parties have strongly refuted the implication that they’re behind dead duck Donald, and described the implications in the ads as false.
Some have gone even farther, by stating that the content of the ads amounts to defamation.
A number of political commentators, such as Matt Fuller for the Huffington Post, have admitted that the DCCC ads might be stretching the truth in places.
However the grandees’ cries of protest do not, in every case, stand up to scrutiny.
John Katko’s lawyers sent a letter to the TV stations, stating bluntly:
“Congressman Katko has never and does not currently support Mr. Trump. The advertisement’s representations to the contrary are patently false.”
It’s true he has taken Trump to task several times in the past for his inflammatory comments. Yet he also said in an interview in March that he would support the Republican candidate, whoever it was.
Mike Coffman could never be accused of being a Trump fan. He even made an ad of his own in August, which slated Trump.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dA8Yv2tJQfY
Yet back in February, when prospects were looking much brighter for the GOP, Coffman hedged his bets just as Katko did, saying he would support whoever the party’s nominee was.
Then we have the Congressional hopeful Brian Fitzpatrick, who also instructed his lawyers to send the TV stations a threatening letter. He claims he was especially outraged by Trump’s derogatory comments about women.
It seems strange that this great respecter of women is, along with David Jolly, one of the leading lights in a campaign to remove funding from the Planned Parenthood program.
The concerns of these men are perhaps understandable, for while the presidential campaign appears to be all but dead in the water, they still have careers to protect, and seats in Washington to be won or lost.
That might also explain why their denunciations of Trump and threats to the TV stations contain more than a little boosting of their own credentials.
Here’s the DCCC ad that goes for David Jolly. The others can be found online.
Featured image: Screenshot from YouTube video
