Swift Boat Vets Launch Next Round of TV Ad CampaignSwift Boat Veterans for Truth released a second ad highlighting John Kerry as he denounced his veteran shipmates and his country by throwing away his commendations after his return from a brief, four-month tour of duty.
This new ad, which will air statewide in Nevada, New Mexico and on some national cable stations, represents a $500,000 media buy -- roughly 700 gross rating points per state over a six-day period. The ad features Kerry's comments during television news interviews in 1971 and 2004 regarding his decision to throw his medals away.
"When John Kerry threw his medals away, he betrayed his fellow veterans, he betrayed his country, and he betrayed every American our armed forces have fought to protect," said Admiral Roy Hoffmann, founder of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.
The ad shows Kerry saying, "I gave back -- I can't remember – six, seven, eight, nine . . .and that was the medals themselves." Kerry also stated in 1971 that he and others like him "renounce the symbols" of his country.
But those statements were far different from the comments Kerry made in 2004, in which he tried to downplay and re-cast the event. In the 2004 version of his medal-tossing incident, Kerry attempted to say that he only threw away ribbons, not the medals themselves and that, "we threw away the symbols of what our country gave us."
The ad closes by asking viewers the question, "John Kerry -- can you trust anything he says?"