It seems like the best way to attack any politician is by using their own rhetoric against them. Old stump speeches, old voting records, old e-mails or campaign ads – just bundle them up and hand them to opposition candidates when you enter the presidential race, because nothing stays buried in the digital age.
Today’s best act of self-sabotage comes by way of the Super PAC Our Principals, a conservative group that exists specifically to “prevent Donald Trump from hijacking our great [Republican] Party.” In an ad called “Quotes,” a handful of women read remarks that Donald Trump has made about women over the years, with little footnotes on the screen to serve as a works cited. That’s it. And you’ll be unsurprised to find his track record on women is pretty abhorrent.
Our Principals was just formed in January and has a strong GOP pedigree behind it. The founder, Katie Packer, has started multiple political consulting firms and is a longtime Republican strategist. If you’re not a policy wonk but still recognize her name, it’s probably because she served as deputy campaign manager for Mitt Romney during his 2012 presidential bid. Our Principals also has former Jeb Bush campaign spokesman Tim Miller on board and has received fundraising assistance from Hewlett Packard President and CEO Meg Whitman.
To date, the Super PAC has spent more than $12 million trying to take down Trump, making it one entity among a growing Republican horde trying to derail his momentum among voters before the party’s nominating convention this summer. Trump leads the Republican race for delegates by 90 votes, with Ted Cruz coming in second, and this comes despite the fact that Trump has raised and spent less money than every candidate remaining in the race, for either party, besides John Kasich. And Kasich’s only role at this point is to hopefully play spoiler and take a few delegates from the man Jezebel described as “a sentient wig possessed by an ancient evil.”
So far, Trump has proven to be Teflon when it comes to all possible forms of attack. It’s hard to take someone down for being disreputable when he’s basically a competitor in world’s most disreputable sport. All the things that seem to be horrible about him are what make him the latest cherished “maverick” playing to the Main Street crowd – a Sarah Palin without the hang-ups of being a country bumpkin that no one’s ever heard of until the political spotlight shone on them for the first time.
But, hey, if there aren’t any public figures left that conservative Americans trust enough to heed their warnings about Donald Trump, maybe his supporters will trust the words of the man himself. Maybe, in the end, the only person bad enough to take down The Donald is The Donald.