A pro-Hillary Clinton super PAC is
trying to sway Christian conservative and pro-life voters by airing a new
anti-Trump television commercial in a number of states.
NPR reports that
Priorities USA Action, a single-candidate super PAC supporting Clinton, is
running a new television ad in several key battleground states that attacks
presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump for mocking a reporter with
a disability last November.
The commercial looks to be aimed at
conservatives and others who believe in the dignity and sanctity of life by
highlighting a Columbus, Ohio, couple who chose to give life to their daughter
after learning she had a disability.
"I remember being in the
ultrasound room and finding out that our daughter was going to be born with a
disability — Spina Bifida," the father, Chris Glaros, explained, as the
commercial showed pictures of his infant daughter.
As a the commercial showed a picture
of the baby lying next to a cross, the mother, Lauren Glaros, talked about how
much of a "blessing" her daughter has been in their lives.
"Grace is the happiest child
you have ever seen," Chris Glaros said, as the commercial showed pictures
of their happy daughter as she got older. "Despite all of her medical
challenges, she brings out the goodness in each person and that is what we see
everyday with Grace."
The commercial's tone turned from
positive to negative when the parents began discussing how they felt when they
saw Trump mocking a disabled reporter last year.
"When I saw Donald Trump mock a
disabled person, I was just shocked," Lauren Glaros said. "The
children at Grace's school all know never to mock her. For an adult to mock
someone with a disability is shocking."
Chris Glaros added that seeing Trump
mock a disabled person shows what kind of person he really is.
"When I saw Donald Trump mock
somebody with a disability, it showed me his soul. It showed me his
heart," he said. "I didn't like what I saw."
As many Christian conservative and
pro-life activist groups encourage parents to give life to their disabled
children rather than abort them, NPR reporter Sarah McCammon found it ironic
that a liberal political group looking to help Clinton was "touting the
virtues of giving life to a disabled child."
As the 1-minute commercial began
running this week in Florida, Ohio, Virginia Nevada, Colorado, Iowa and New
Hampshire, many of which have strong conservative Christian populations, a
spokesman for Priorities USA Action told NPR that the commercial is not meant
to target one specific demographic.
"We're speaking to lots of
different people — to anyone who thinks mocking someone with a disability is
offensive," the super PAC's spokesman Justin Barasky said. "Mocking
someone with disability is offensive to evangelicals; it's offensive to
agnostics, it's offensive to just about everybody."
The commercial did a good job of
appealing to one prominent evangelical conservative who has been critical of
Trump, at least until he figured out who the commercial is sponsored by.
Russell Moore, the president of the
Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, told NPR that he found the
commercial to be "powerful until the very end, when one discovers that it
is for Hillary Clinton."
"This year, the duopoly on
parties have given us two horrible choices when it comes to questions of human
dignity," Moore said.
Barasky said that ad isn't so much
about getting Republican voters to vote for Clinton as it is trying to get
conservative voters to stay home rather than vote for Trump. He added that the
super PAC is fully aware that there are a number of Republican voters and
Independents who are "troubled by the things that Donald Trump has said
and done throughout the course of his campaign and his career."
No comments:
Post a Comment