The Democratic National Committee is launching a new ad today featuring the former leader of the Ku Klux Klan. Recent endorsement from the Duke of David from third-party candidate Jill Stein.
The DNC warned that the Green Party nominee would be a “spoiler candidate” in some swing states, as she was in 2016 for Hillary Clinton.
The spot, titled “Company They Keep,” is expected to air in battlegrounds in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin as well as on cable channels across the country, according to a DNC official who shared the details for the first time times with NBC News.
When Duke endorsed Stein last week, he said he was thinking about what was “good for white people, European people” and ultimately called it one of the “most important statements” he’s made politically.
“We had no idea and are absolutely not interested in endorsing David Duke,” Stein’s campaign manager told NBC.
“You can learn a lot about a person by the company they keep,” the ad says. “Longtime Klan leader David Duke supported her. And like Trump, she is close to Vladimir Putin. Jill Stein. Look at his friends, because voting for Stein is a vote for Trump.”
A Senate Intelligence Committee report found that Russian social media efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election included messages of support for Stein.
“Jill Stein, David Duke and Vladimir Putin may make strange bedfellows, but they all have one common goal: to beat Vice President Harris and return Donald Trump to the White House,” said Mary Beth Cahill, senior advisor to the DNC, in a statement to BNC. “This time, Trump and his MAGA allies are openly supporting her. Don’t let a former KKK leader and Russian dictator fool you: a vote for Stein is a vote for Trump.”
Stein has already called it’s a “badge of honor” to be held partly responsible for Trump’s 2016 victory.
Trump, for his part, said this summer of Stein: “I like him a lot. »