Pro-Trump PAC launches attack ad against GOP senator who opposes Senate health bill
A political action committee for President Trump has launched an attack advertisement against a member of the president’s own party, Republican Sen. Dean Heller of Nevada, over his opposition to the Senate health care bill.
America First Policies PAC released the ad Tuesday, making it the first pro-Trump organization to publicly attack a Republican officeholder.
The advertisement asks viewers to call Sen. Heller and tell him to “keep his promise” and “vote yes to repeal and replace Obamacare.” The ad also says that a down vote by the senator would pose an obstacle to his own party and the Trump administration who it says finally have a “real chance to repeal and replace Obamacare.”
The political action committee told ABC News on Tuesday afternoon that it will keep the ad up despite the Senate leadership’s announcement earlier in the day that it was delaying a planned procedural vote on the bill until after the July 4 reccess.
America First Policies President Brian Walsh said upon the ad’s release, “There is no excuse for any Republican or Democrat to oppose the Senate health care bill outright, when Obamacare is collapsing and putting the American people in crisis.”
Walsh noted that Heller called for the repeal of Obamacare in 2012 and said the political action committee plans to allot over $1 million toward attacking the Republican senator, who is up for reelection in 2018.
The ad was released four days after Heller on Friday announced he could not support the Senate health care bill in its current form, which he said “takes away insurance from tens of millions of Americans.”
America First Policies was formed days following President Trump’s inauguration with the intention of supporting his agenda. It had planned was to release the advertisement on television and radio in Nevada in advance of the Senate vote on the health care bill that was expected this week and to conduct additional ad campaigns in 18 other states in support of the legislation.
The Senate vote was postponed Tuesday amid a lack of sufficient support for the bill.
