A few years ago, ahead of the 2022 midterm elections, Republicans ran into some trouble when some of their Senate ads were so blatantly misleading that they had to be removed from the radio waves.
This recent story came to mind reading this report from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
At issue is a super PAC called Restoration PAC, which is largely funded by Republican mega-donor Richard Uihlein, and which has already invested millions of dollars in hopes of unseating Baldwin in the fall.
It was in this context that the group released an attack ad accusing the sitting senator of having voted in favor of “cutting Medicare funding.” As the Journal Sentinel says report explained, attorneys at Elias Law Group, on behalf of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, contacted OnMedia’s TV ad sales department last week, pointing out the commercial’s “blatant lies” and calling for the ad to be taken off the air.
The ad was, in fact, withdrawn, and in its replacement the phrase “cut Medicare” was edited out, although the Restoration PAC claims the changes predate the Democratic complaint.
A Daily Kos report added: “The Restore PAC was vulnerable to the Democrats’ removal demand because television stations can be held responsible for publishing defamatory statements from third-party groups – one of the few ways there can be accountability for lies in the political arena.”
As for the underlying allegation, it was almost two years ago when Senator Rick Scott it started telling Americans that Democrats had cut Medicare through the Inflation Reduction Act. By any sensible measure, the Florida Republican was lying through his teeth: as regular readers to knowThe Democrats’ law authorized Medicare to negotiate lower prices for consumers on prescription drugs, generating dramatic savings.
In the English language, there is no credible definition of “cut” that this fits into.
And yet, the Republican senator kept repeating the lieeven when journalists kept reminding him of the reality.
Only now are we beginning to see early indications that Republicans intend to embrace the same absurd claim in the 2024 election cycle, cynically hoping that voters will believe that Democrats don’t like Medicare enough despite the reality. An attack announcement near you coming soon.
This post updates our related previous coverage.
This article was originally published in MSNBC.com
