Tom Steyer is spending another $10 million to put a second anti-Donald-Trump advertisement on national television — this time taking aim at the President’s tax overhaul push.
The ad comes less than a month after the Democratic mega-donor and billionaire environmentalist spent $10 million on a one-minute ad calling for Trump’s impeachment.
The second installment of Steyer’s anti-Trump ad campaign begins Thursday with a spot filmed on Steyer’s ranch in Pescadero, California.
It urges viewers to sign Steyer’s NeedToImpeach.com petition to remove Trump from office — but largely focuses on a GOP tax plan that Steyer says “is really for the wealthy and big corporations while hurting the middle class.” The ad’s release was timed to coincide with a House vote on the GOP’s tax measure.
The ad begins with Steyer recalling the 2008 financial collapse and introducing his own history — an important element, since Steyer has left the door open to a run for president, the Senate or California governor himself.
“It turned out that the system that had benefited people like me, who are well off, was in fact stacked against everyone else. It’s why I left my investment firm and resolved to use my savings for the public good,” Steyer says in the direct-to-camera spot.
“But here we are, nine years later, and this President and a Republican Congress are making a bad situation even worse,” Steyer says.
“They won’t tell you that their so-called tax reform plan is really for the wealthy and big corporations while hurting the middle class. It blows up the deficit, and that means fewer investments in education, health care and job creation,” he says. “It’s up to all of us to stand up to this President, not just for impeachable offenses, but also to demand a country where everyone has a real chance to succeed.”
The ad also displays nine of the 2.3 million people who Steyer aides say have signed his petition to impeach Trump.
The tax ad comes less than four weeks after Steyer’s ad calling on elected officials to “take a stand” on whether they support impeaching Trump.
“A Republican Congress once impeached a president for far less. And today, people in Congress and his own administration know that this President is a clear and present danger who is mentally unstable and armed with nuclear weapons,” Steyer said in that ad.
On Wednesday, Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tennessee, introduced articles of impeachment in the House to remove Trump from office.
However, the No. 2 House Democrat, Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland, said now is not the time for House Democrats to push for impeachment.
“That should not be overturned except for the most egregious and demonstrable facts, and both Leader Pelosi and I believe it is not timely to address that issue given what is in front of us,” Hoyer said, speaking of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat.
