Foes Point to ‘Con Man’ Trump and ‘Toxic’ Clinton

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/22/us/politics/foes-point-to-con-man-trump-and-toxic-clinton.html

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Sexist comments. Failed business ventures. Caustic rhetoric. Unseemly business dealings.

For months, Republican opponents of Donald J. Trump hit him on myriad issues, to no avail. Now, the “super PAC” supporting Hillary Clinton’s campaign, Priorities USA, is picking up where Republicans left off, with two broadcast ads focusing on Mr. Trump’s remarks about women and a new online ad mocking his business exploits.

THE AD Over and over, Mr. Trump is interrupted in mid-sales pitch — for Trump Airlines, Trump University, Trump Steaks, and so on — with a red rubber stamp declaring “Scam,” “Failed” or “Fraud.” The bottom line: Far from the business genius he purports to be, Mr. Trump is no better than a “con man.”

THE IMPACT His detractors are of two minds about negative ads attacking Mr. Trump: Some believe his victory in the Republican primaries shows that they did not work; others say his exceptionally high unfavorable ratings show that they did. Operatives at Priorities USA say that many voters did not pay much attention to ads during the primary campaign — so expect to see a lot more.

Changing channels ...

Even as Democrats have begun attacking Republican congressional candidates by linking them to their presumptive presidential nominee, the National Republican Senatorial Committee released a brutal new digital ad tying Democratic candidates to Hillary Clinton.

With a loud heartbeat thumping, the ad shows several Democratic candidates in shadowy, red-and-black photos as a narrator asks if voters can “really support” Mrs. Clinton. It calls her a “living history of scandal, lies and spin,” citing Whitewater, Benghazi and the investigation into her use of a private email server as secretary of state; says she once defended an accused child rapist and laughed about it; and denounces her for “fake accents, fake concerns and fake laughs.”

Political ads have deployed demon sheep and scorpions. Now come adorable kittens, clawing at each other’s backs. The narrator of a Democratic ad attacking Senator Pat Toomey, Republican of Pennsylvania, sarcastically intones, “You scratch my back — I’ll scratch yours,” suggesting Mr. Toomey is beholden to his former colleagues on Wall Street.

Facing a closer race than expected, Senator John McCain of Arizona has already begun attacking Representative Ann Kirkpatrick, his Democratic challenger, over her vote for Obamacare.

$12.4 million: Amount spent by the Koch brothers’ donor network on Senate contests so far.

10: Number of Republican outside groups that have run ads so far in the Senate race in New Hampshire.