Former President Donald Trump’s campaign is firing back at a left-wing political action committee, demanding Pennsylvania Values take off the air its misleading ad urging Trump voters not to participate in mail-in voting.
On Tuesday, the campaign sent a cease-and-desist letter to the super PAC and said it plans to seek a criminal investigation into the group and the digital ad.
“We are aware of your advertisement falsely claiming that President Trump has asked Pennsylvania voters not to vote by mail. This advertisement may constitute both a criminal and civil conspiracy to injure the rights of President Trump’s supporters to cast their ballots in Pennsylvania,” the GOP presidential candidate’s campaign warned in the letter to Maria L. Galdo, Pennsylvania Values’ listed treasurer. “Cease and desist broadcasting, or otherwise distributing via the internet or elsewhere, this false advertisement immediately and preserve all relevant documents in anticipation of likely litigation.”
KKK Tactics?
The letter cites what is known as the Ku Klux Klan Act, an 1871 law targeting those associated with the KKK — mostly Democrats — from attempting to intimidate black voters, who mainly voted for Republicans post-Civil War. As the campaign notes, the act creates a cause of action against those who conspire “to prevent by force, intimidation, or threat, any citizen who is lawfully entitled to vote, from giving his support or advocacy in a legal manner, toward or in favor of the election of any lawfully qualified person as an elector for President or Vice President, or as a Member of Congress of the United States.”
As The Federalist first reported on Monday, the ad uses old clips from Trump talking about how corrupt mail-in voting is — a statement grounded in a fair amount of truth but a message that Trump and the GOP have moved past as they urge Republicans to vote early in November’s rematch of the 2020 presidential election.
“MAGA Patriots Listen To Our President!” the ad begins, with a black and white photo of Trump.
“Mail-in voting is totally corrupt. Get that through your head!” says Trump in a video clip punctuated by dramatic music.
Conservative organizations working get-out-the-vote efforts in the battleground state of Pennsylvania and elsewhere say the ad is the kind of “disinformation” campaign that the left, the deep state, and Big Tech have railed against — and shut down.
‘Stop at Nothing’
Corporate media outlets, perhaps not surprisingly, mocked the GOP response, sneering that the ad is merely using Trump’s “own words to discourage mail voting.”
“Trump campaign accuses Democratic group of ‘election interference’ — for quoting Trump,” the Philadelphia Inquirer’s headline declared. The publication also noted that the ad “is framed to viewers as coming from Trump.”
As I reported on Monday, anti-Trumpers may correctly say the former president said what he said. Trump saw the unprecedented use of mail-in ballots and countless irregularities and suspicious activities surrounding them as a big part of a rig job by Democrats and their allies in 2020.
But as corporate media outlets have taken great pains to widely report, Trump and other Republicans have “changed their tune” on early voting, a point the Trump campaign stressed in their warning letter.
“Biden and his allies will stop at nothing to interfere with this election because Crooked Joe is losing nationally and in battleground states like Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania Values PAC is peddling lies to prevent voters exercising their right to vote,” said Brian Hughes, senior adviser to the Trump campaign, in a press release. “President Trump has been clear that his supporters should use all legal methods to cast a ballot this election. In just the last two weeks at events in front of thousands of Americans — including in Pennsylvania — President Trump has encouraged supporters to visit SwamptheVoteUSA.com, a website that promotes all legal voting methods. To say otherwise in advertising, as this false TV commercial does, represents an intentional effort to mislead Pennsylvania voters, suppress Trump supporters, and disrupt a fair election this Fall.”
‘Psychological Warfare’
The ad is a sleazy twist on what voters can expect from the left in the four-plus months leading up to the Election Day rematch of Democrat incumbent President Joe Biden and the Republican who preceded him in office.
Liam Donovan, a frequent commentator and writer on national politics, posted on his X account that the misleading PAC ad is the “first time” he’s “seen this tactic.”
“Pennsylvania Values is a super pac funded almost entirely by the building trades that was most active in 2018 the last time [Pennsylvania Democrat Sen. Bob] Casey was up, spending $1.1M against [Republican challenger Lou] Barletta. Spent another $285k in 2020 against Trump,” Donovan wrote.
It is interesting that a super PAC that is part of a left-wing movement constantly accusing Republicans of “voter suppression” is running an ad encouraging Republicans not to use a particular means of voting.
Jessica Anderson, president of Sentinel Action Fund, one of three conservative groups that earlier this year launched an eight-figure get-out-the-vote campaign in Pennsylvania and elsewhere, said Republicans are awake and will not allow this “psychological warfare to stand.”
“This is only the beginning of the dirty tricks we’re going to see from the Left this election cycle,” Anderson told The Federalist. “President Trump and Republicans are right to use every legal tool and avenue they have to fight this blatant election interference in Pennsylvania.”
“To help Trump in these efforts, voters must do their parts to stay engaged early, show up during the early voting process, and show the Left that 2024 will truly be ‘too big to rig.’ This is our opportunity to show Joe Biden, Bob Casey, and PA Democrats that their pathetic voter suppression efforts won’t work and PA voters are ready for new leadership.”
Matt Kittle is a senior elections correspondent for The Federalist. An award-winning investigative reporter and 30-year veteran of print, broadcast, and online journalism, Kittle previously served as the executive director of Empower Wisconsin.
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