A new ad released by the Our Principles PAC attacks Donald Trump using his own words–specifically his own words about women. The roughly one minute spot uses past Trump quotes about various women–including Princess Diana, Carly Fiorina, and Megyn Kelly–to highlight how the current Republican frontrunner ostensibly feels about women.
The Our Principles PAC is conservative-led but anti-Trump, and was founded this January. It was created by Katie Packer, a Mitt Romney aide during the 2012 presidential election. Our Principles PAC’s mission, as stated on its website, is:
As Thomas Jefferson said, ‘In matters of style, swim with the current. In matters of principle, stand like a rock.’ With our nation’s progress stalled by politicians who refuse to lead, Americans are rightly frustrated. Our Principles PAC was formed to educate and engage American voters about the men and women who seek our vote, and about the challenging issues they will confront should they get elected.
The PAC also operates the website TrumpQuestions.com, which aims to debunk some of Trump’s views that the website believes he has been inconsistent on, like “health care” and “Trump University.”
Packer told Talking Points Memo that this ad is “part of a 7-figure existing buy” ahead of Tuesday’s contests.
The spot, entitled “Quotes” is very clear about its message–Donald Trump has a very consistent habit of saying nasty, inappropriate things about women. All of the quotes featured came from the last year except for “Women: you have to treat ’em like shit,” which came from a 1992 New York Times Magazine article.
While hearing all the quotes back-to-back is certainly jarring, the fact that Trump says derogatory things about women consistently shouldn’t be a surprise. These comments may be starting to have an effect on the campaign too–Trump is polling better among Republican men than Republican women. His campaign has also received some blowback about the way it treats women. There’s currently a big controversy over the alleged assault of a Brietbart reporter named Michelle Fields, who says she was grabbed by Trump’s campaign manager at an event.
The ad is powerful, but as chances to stop Trump start to slip away, we’ll have to see if it has any effect.