A GOP group funded by heavyweight Republican donors is attacking Hillary Clinton from the left, attempting to open a rift between Latinos and the Democratic nominee via television ads aimed at Spanish-language voters.
Future 45, a pro-Donald Trump super PAC funded by some of the biggest names in Republican politics, is spending $1.5 million in the final week of the campaign amplifying comments made when she stylized herself as more of a hardliner on immigration. The ads were crafted months ago during the Democratic primary — though they did not run — and the group now sees an opportunity to repurpose them for a general election audience.
Brian Baker, the group’s president and a political aide to one of its lead donors, the Ricketts family, said the PAC would try to paint her as a “political chameleon.”
“Hillary Clinton says she’s a friend of ours. Is it because she needs our votes? A friend would not say this,” one ad says, before featuring old clips of Clinton comments, with Spanish subtitles, stressing her opposition to illegal immigration.
Another spot features similar comments of hers at a 2008 debate: “Listening to the Hillary of yesterday, we can’t trust the Hillary of today,” the narrator says.
Trump himself has not yet aired a single Spanish-language ad in the campaign, which has surprised some GOP hands eager to make inroads in the Hispanic community. The spots will air on Univision and Telemundo nationally, with a particularly heavy rotation in Colorado, Nevada and Florida, and also online.
Future 45 and its affiliated nonprofit 45Committee earlier this fall looked poised to help Trump achieve parity in television advertising, but fundraising and spending appears to have slowed in recent weeks.
Sheldon Adelson and his wife Miriam have given $10 million to the super PAC, and CNN has reported that the Las Vegas couple has committed $25 million total to the two groups, though the nonprofit is not required to disclose its donors.
