The Democrats have officially lost it.
A new campaign ad, from Dan Helmer, who is running for Congress from Virginia, compared President Trump to Osama bin Laden.
“After 9/11, the greatest threat to our democracy lived in a cave,” Dan Helmer narrates in the ad, as a photo of bin Laden appears on the screen. “Today, he lives in the White House. No one, even the President, is above the law.”
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The shocking ad caused backlash from across the political spectrum—with Helmer’s opponent, Republican Rep. Barbara Comstock tweeting that the comparison is an “outrageous and offensive thing to say, and beyond the pale.”
The White House, too, clapped back, with Deputy Press Secretary Raj Shah calling the ad “nothing short of reprehensible.”
“Leaders from across the political spectrum — starting with Leader [Nancy] Pelosi — must swiftly condemn this abhorrent message,” Shah said.
Later, Pelosi’s deputy chief of staff did assert that Pelosi “does not condone the end of this ad” but blamed the President for the current “level of civility in politics.”
Regardless of the backlash, Heller’s team plans to run with the ad anyway. Digital ads began on Wednesday and TV ads on major stations in Northern Virginia and Washington, DC, began on Thursday.
