Source: Time
Michael Beckel / Center for Public Integrity
The 2016 presidential election’s most powerful super PAC is the one backing Democrat Hillary Clinton.
That group, known as Priorities USA Action, has aired about 36,000 TV ads since mid-May, according to data provided to theCenter for Public Integrity by ad tracking firm Kantar Media/CMAG.
Fully 100 percent of them have attacked Clinton’s Republican rival, celebrity businessman Donald Trump.
Live in a swing state? These ads have been unavoidable.
So far in August, Priorities USA Action has aired more than 2,100 ads in Florida — about one ad, on average, every 15 minutes. And in Ohio this month, Priorities USA Action has so far aired more than 1,800 ads — an average of about one every 17 minutes.
This week alone, this anti-Trump attack dog is out with two new ads. Both target residents of Florida and Ohio, as well as voters in Iowa, Nevada and North Carolina.
The ads
Priorities USA Action’s new spots — entitled “Watching” and “Pledge” — are laced with some of Trump’s most contentious remarks, such as when he appeared to mock a disabled reporter and when he suggested that Mexicans who immigrate to the United States are rapists and criminals.
These comments are juxtaposed with video of children reciting the Pledge of Allegiance in “Pledge,” and, in “Watching,” with shots of people Clinton has dubbed “everyday Americans” — a man washing dishes, a man in a wheelchair, a Korean War veteran, a mother heading out the door to work.
The ads’ sponsor
Allies of President Barack Obama — including former White House staffersBill Burton and Sean Sweeney — launched Priorities USA Action in April 2011 to support Obama’s re-election. In 2014, the super PAC transformed itself into a pro-Clinton operation.
Like any super PAC, Priorities USA Action is legally allowed to collect unlimited amounts of money from individuals, corporations or labor unions — so long as it doesn’t coordinate its spending with the candidate it is seeking to aid.
But that limitation hasn’t stopped Clinton herself, as well as former President Bill Clinton, from helping the super PAC raise money — while also trying to distance herself from it as she touts campaign finance reform.
Who’s behind it?
Priorities USA Action’s chief strategist is Guy Cecil, who served as Hillary Clinton’s political and field director during her unsuccessful 2008 presidential campaign. He also served as the executive director of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee during the 2010 and 2012 election cycles, after a stint as chief of staff for Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo.