Trump's first ad in Pa. accuses Clinton of 'rigging' system
Donald Trump has launched his first television ad in the general election campaign, and Philadelphia-area voters are among his targets.
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Donald Trump has launched his first television ad in the general election campaign, and Philadelphia-area voters are among his targets.
The GOP presidential candidate's 10-day ad buy, which began Friday, includes $530,000 spent in Philadelphia - the largest buy among the Florida, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Ohio markets where Trump's campaign bought $4 million in broadcast airtime, according to NBC News.
NBC, which reported Thursday that Trump would spend more than $980,000 in Pennsylvania, including in Harrisburg and Pittsburgh, said the total ad spending could increase with a cable component taking effect Saturday.
Trump's campaign said it would spend $4.8 million through Aug. 29 on ads, including one released Friday.
The ad doubles down on the candidate's immigration-focused message, predicting that in Democrat "Hillary Clinton's America, the system stays rigged against Americans. Syrian refugees flood in. Illegal immigrants convicted of committing crimes get to stay."
By contrast, "Donald Trump's America is secure," the ad's narrator says. "Terrorists and dangerous criminals: kept out. The border: secured."
Clinton's campaign said Friday that Trump's ad was misleading and called the Republican unfit to lead. "From his divisive rhetoric to his erratic efforts to alienate our allies to his dangerous plans, Donald Trump has made our country less safe already," said Christina Reynolds, Hillary For America deputy communications director.
Trump's spending in the Philadelphia market is "a reasonably robust buy," said J.J. Balaban, a Democratic media consultant with the Campaign Group in Philadelphia.
But it lags the spending behind Clinton's effort. Priorities USA, a pro-Clinton super PAC, announced earlier this summer that it had reserved $10.5 million in airtime in Pennsylvania from July 5 through the November election.
Independent expenditure groups, like super PACs, pay a higher rate for advertising than candidates, Balaban said.
Clinton is averaging a 9-point lead on Trump in recent polls of Pennsylvania voters, according to Real Clear Politics. Priorities USA, meanwhile, recently announced that it would put on hold its TV commercials in Pennsylvania from Sept. 3 to 19.
"This is catch-up time for the Trump campaign," said Charlie Gerow, a GOP strategist in Harrisburg.
Trump is trailing Clinton in averages of recent polls in all four states where his campaign has started running ads.
While Trump's first ad is a "solid setup" piece, with its focus on security, Gerow said, "the key is going to be what comes beyond this."
"Unless your daily messages are consistent with the paid messages, you've got a real problem. And that has been one of the problems of the Trump campaign, frankly, up until now," Gerow said.
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