In a Bush-era throwback, the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) debuted a new ad campaign portraying Democrats as weak on terrorists.
The new ad in Iowa’s 3rd District targets Democratic candidate Staci Appel for favoring “passports for terrorists” and praises Republican David Young as “tough on terrorists.” The ad leads with scary footage of militants abroad.
Despite the clip in the ad, Appel’s campaign has said she favors revoking passports for Americans suspected of joining radical Islamic groups in the Middle East.
The NRCC spot isn’t the only Republican ad in recent days to highlight terrorism. In Georgia, Republican David Perdue ran ads featuring footage of ISIS fighters and accused Democrat Michelle Nunn of giving money “terrorists” while running George H.W. Bush’s Points Of Light foundation. Fact checkers have called the attack false and Neil Bush, son of the former president, has condemned Perdue’s ad as “shameful” and “ridiculous.” A number of Republican politicians have also raised the specter of terrorists infiltrating the Mexican border, despite reassurances from the Department of Homeland Security that no evidence of such a threat currently exists.
Up to this point, foreign policy has largely taken a backseat to economic issues when it comes to the midterm elections. But with polls showing President Barack Obama’s foreign policy numbers scraping bottom and Republicans increasingly fired up about military action, it’s worth questioning whether that will remain the case going forward.
Benjy Sarlin