Experts Question the White House’s Defense of Taxpayer-Funded Ads

Filed 53m ago · Via FactCheck.org · The Buffoon Desk

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DarxieLand

Kevin MacLeod · incompetech.com · CC BY 4.0

Photo: Jorge Royan · CC BY-SA 3.0 · via Wikimedia Commons

Three taxpayer-funded ads featuring President Trump have aired since late September on broadcast, streaming, and NFL broadcasts, each carrying a 'Paid for by the U.S. Government' disclaimer.

The White House calls them public service announcements comparable to ads run under Bush, Obama, and Biden. Legal experts, including a former Bush ethics lawyer and a former Obama special counsel, say the content, timing, and rhetoric, including vows to 'demolish the deep state' and 'cast out communists,' make them overt midterm messaging that may violate the Hatch Act and appropriations-bill bans on domestic propaganda.

The ads' near-identical footage to 2024 campaign material, and Trump's own instruction to supporters to treat him as on the ballot despite the disclaimer's claim otherwise, has drawn scrutiny even from some Republicans.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.

✒ FROM THE EDITORIAL DESK

If an ad talks about demolishing the deep state and casting out communists, you can stamp any label on the bottom you like, but everybody watching the NFL knows which lever it wants pulled. The man himself told supporters to act like he's on the ballot, which rather settles what the disclaimer is worth. When your own side starts squinting at the bill, it might be time to pay for the next one out of your own pocket.

Source: Read the original at FactCheck.org → Scored: DarxieLand · Kevin MacLeod · CC BY 4.0

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