Posted on 01/26/2016 3:56:51 AM PST by kristinn
With less than a week until the Iowa caucuses, Donald Trump is facing an 11th-hour barrage of negative advertising - with a new anti-Trump group spending more than $1 million in a last-ditch effort to defeat him.
Our Principles PAC, a newly formed super PAC set up by a former top aide to Mitt Romney, is set to begin airing a TV ad in Iowa that calls into question his devotion to conservative positions - and asks Iowa voters bluntly, "How much do we really know about Donald Trump?"
The ad, which invokes Trump's past statements on hot-button issues like abortion and health care, marks one of the most aggressive efforts yet to take down the billionaire businessman, who leads most state and national polls and is in a competitive battle with Ted Cruz in Iowa.
Katie Packer, who served as Romney's deputy campaign manager in the 2012 election and who now heads Our Principles PAC, declined to give an exact figure for how much the anti-Trump group was spending to air the commercial, though a source familiar with the TV buy said it was in the "seven-figure" range.
Trump is also confronting an onslaught of attacks from Ted Cruz's campaign and two allied super PACs - all of which on Monday released commercials that, like Packer's, highlights the real estate mogul's past liberal positions. One, from the pro-Cruz super PAC Stand for Truth, uses footage from a 1999 interview in which Trump says that he is "pro-choice in every respect."
The late attacks come just days before the first votes of the primary are cast - and come at a time when some of Trump's rivals are openly wondering whether Iowa represents their last chance to stop him.
"If Donald wins Iowa, he right now has a substantial lead in New Hampshire, if he went on to win New Hampshire as well, there is a very good chance he could be unstoppable and be our nominee," Cruz told a gathering of Iowa pastors on Monday.
"If he wins Iowa the dominoes begin to fall," said Matt Dowd, who served as chief strategist on George W. Bush's 2004 reelection campaign. "It will be very hard to stop him at that point. He has all the momentum. And keep in mind no GOP candidate has lost the nomination who has been in Trump's position at this point."
SNIP
I saw the ad. It’s a rerun of the Russert interview that people have seen hundreds of times and couldn’t care less about. Ironic coming from the Romney aide.
These efforts will rally Trump supporters to go out and vote.
Romney and his GOPe ilk are so damn good attacking fellow Republicans and spineless against Democrats.
Romney and his GOPe ilk are so damn good attacking fellow Republicans and spineless against Democrats.
Last minute assault?
When have they ever stopped?
24/7 for the last 7 months they have attacked him nonstop!.....over and over, every which way
If he isn’t an example of ....’Here I am, Lord, send me’.....he is close to it!
And I believe the Lord has given him daily strength to mount up as eagles and soar, God love him!
They must be bombarded by political advertising and pollsters constantly.
I'd be sick of the whole process by now. How do they get any downtime?
have you seen the new info at Conservative Tree House? Looks like one of the leaders of Cruz pacs is McConnell’s lawyer. Also lawyer for CoC people. Also responsible for anti Trump ads. Cruz is looking like he’s not the outsider he wants us to think he is.
You make the common mistake of equating the awareness of FReepers with that of the general public. This is a well timed roll out that will expose uninformed people to The Real Donald Trump.
They all go negative against their opponents at the end. Nature of the beast.
"If Donald wins Iowa, he right now has a substantial lead in New Hampshire, if he went on to win New Hampshire as well, there is a very good chance he could be unstoppable and be our nominee," Cruz told a gathering of Iowa pastors on Monday.
This telegraphs weakness. I'm sure there is context in the meeting, but that context is missing in this news report.
Jeb, Cruz and the Club for Growth already ran similar ads about the Russert interview. Most Iowans have probably seen it by now.
I saw that too. The context is help me win Iowa. If I don’t win there nobody can stop Trump. It doesn’t sound like Cruz has anywhere to go if he loses.
Irony anyone?
Wow. If you are tracking all that, when do you have time to sleep, eat or work?
Are you on Trump’s staff?
A Romney-linked PAC accusing Trump of not being conservative? That’s rich. Can you spell H-Y-P-O-C-R-I-S-Y?
LOL... I love it when they splice and dice an interview. /sarc
It doesn’t take that long. Keep in mind that these are 30 second ads ;)
i suspect rat hole down which the money is stuffed
Well, good luck to these ad buyers. They’ll need it. Trump may be shaky on the conservative history here and there but we all SAW him do what NONE EVER DO in our PC and cowardly age: outrage political correctness and then calmly quadruple down in the raging tempest that followed. The guy is Shane or Doc Holliday out there. He IMPRINTED on the minds of people who had all been wondering where the HELL the damn MEN were. This goes a lot deeper than intellectual persuasion and Trump himself is going to have to one eighty on what he’s been saying before a lot if people bail on him.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell Attorney Heads Pro-Cruz, Anti-Trump Super PAC…
There is a Super-PAC called “Stand for Truth†registered out of Lexington Kentucky headed by a guy named Eric Lycan.
[ ]
Mr. Eric Lycan was Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s lawyer during his re-election campaign against Matt Bevin.
[ ]
Eric Lycan’s “Stand for Truth†Super-PAC is not only Pro-Cruz, it is also Anti-Donald Trump.
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