Fox & Friends brought on former White House press secretary Sean Spicer on Friday to discuss how former top Obama national security aide Ben Rhodes said in a new book that Obama called Trump a “cartoon” after he was elected. Then they showed Spicer an ad where a Democrat compared Trump to Osama bin Laden. The Democrat is running in the suburbs of northern Virginia, meaning D.C. journalists can see this ad in their homes:
AD: I’m Dan Helmer, I approve this message. I'm different. I'm not a politician. I'm a Rhodes scholar who served in combat. I'm for a Medicare-for-All option [single-payer naitonalized health care] and against companies that rip off seniors. I will fight the gun lobby to protect children, not guns. After 9/11, the greatest threat to our democracy lived in a cave [picture of Osama bin Laden]. Today he lives in the White House. No one, even the president, is above the law. Barbara Comstock has beaten every politician. I'm different.
Fox’s Ainsley Earhardt asked Spicer for his reaction:
SEAN SPICER: It's reprehensible. I mean, the idea that you are comparing the president of the United States to a terrorist that inflicted death to our country, is reprehensible, and I think what the biggest problem is in the 10th Congressional District in Virginia. Have you 12 people trying to defeat Barbara Comstock. She’s a tough fighter, she’s worked hard for the commonwealth of Virginia and the people there. They are trying to figure out how to win this primary by going so far to the left, and iIf you watch the commercials in northern Virginia, it's one extreme after the next. Because that's the only way they can win a Democratic primary these days, which is go as far as you can to the left and then the next person has to go even further. It's a sad state when that's the level that you have to go at to win a Democratic primary these days.
The Washington Post hasn't put its "Fact Checker" on this ad, or run an outraged editorial. A news story by Jenna Portnoy noted the White House denounced it (as did Rep. Comstock).
Helmer uses the line in nearly every public appearance, but the 30-second spot slated to air on broadcast television from Thursday until the June 12 primary just provoked a response from the Trump administration.
"The message sent in a campaign ad from a congressional candidate from Virginia is nothing short of reprehensible. Leaders from across the political spectrum - starting with Leader Pelosi - must swiftly condemn this abhorrent message," White House spokesman Raj Shah said in a statement. He referred to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).
Helmer's campaign responded by accusing Trump of failing to uphold his oath of office.
"With this ad, we have joined others such as Thomas Friedman and Republican Senator Jeff Flake, sounding the alarm about the threat to our democracy that President Trump poses," his campaign manager, Bonnie Krenz, said in a statement.
