A Republican-aligned group is launching a $1 million campaign against Donald Trump, hitting out against the former president for his mishandling of classified documents by using his own words against him in a 30-second ad.
The Republican Accountability Project is out with a new ad on Tuesday, featuring a video compilation of Trump’s comments to hold politicians accountable if they mistreat classified materials — a pledge he made during his presidential run in 2016. Those vows were used as an attack against then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton after it was discovered she used a private email server to conduct official government business during her time as secretary of state.
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“I’m going to enforce all laws concerning the protection of classified information,” Trump says in the ad.
“We can’t have someone in the Oval Office who doesn’t understand the meaning of the words confidential or classified,” he says at another point.
The ad is set to air nationwide on both Fox News and CNN as well as broadcast stations in key battleground states such as Iowa, Wisconsin, Georgia, and Arizona that were key to President Joe Biden’s victory in 2020.
“It’s time to hold Trump to Trump’s own standard,” the narrator in the ad says.
The ad foreshadows just how prevalent Trump’s federal charges will be to the 2024 landscape as Democrats have already seized on messaging to harm the former president’s campaign. Meanwhile, Trump has sought to use the indictment for his own benefit in fundraising missives to rally support among his voter base.
The indictment will be at the forefront of his opponents’ campaigns as well, forcing his challengers to defend the party’s front-runner even as they seek to overcome him in the polls.
The 49-page indictment unsealed earlier this month details 37 criminal counts against Trump stemming from an investigation into the former president’s handling of classified documents that were found at his Mar-a-Lago home after he left office. Some of those classified materials contained information “regarding defense and weapons capabilities” that could put the country’s national security at risk, the filing states.
The indictment accuses Trump of obstructing the FBI investigation into the missing materials by instructing aides to conceal the documents and even going so far as to suggest “that his attorney hide or destroy documents called for by the grand jury subpoena.”
Trump also showed the documents to individuals without a proper security clearance, according to the indictment. In one instance, the former president acknowledged the materials were “highly confidential” and that “as president, I could have declassified it,” but “now I can’t.”
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Among the charges include 31 counts of willful retention of national defense information, one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice, one count of withholding a document or record, one count of corruptly concealing a document or record, one count of concealing documents in a federal investigation, one count of scheme to conceal, and one count of making false statements and representations.
Trump has already gone on the offense against the indictment, claiming the Justice Department is unfairly targeting him to damage his political strength. Several Republicans have also come to his defense, accusing Biden of weaponizing the federal government to weaken his top political opponent.