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Clinton super PAC putting $10 million behind anti-Trump ad

Posted at 4:24 PM, Sep 29, 2016
and last updated 2016-09-29 16:24:07-04

DES MOINES, Iowa — Hillary Clinton’s top-dollar super PAC, Priorities USA, is planning to knock Donald Trump for comments the Republican presidential nominee made mocking a reporter’s disability as part of their largest ad buy of the campaign.

The super PAC will begin airing an ad in a host of swing states this week that features Dante Latchman, a 17-year-old Nevadan who was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer on his spine. The ad, which shows Latchman saying he doesn’t “want a president who makes fun of me,” is backed by $10 million, according to a release from the group first shared with CNN.

“When I was one year old I was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer in my spinal cord, but I spent my whole life fighting back,” Latchman says before the ad cuts to Trump mocking a reporter with a disability. “I want a president who inspires me. And that’s not Donald Trump.”

The ad, which was first aired digitally, will air in Ohio, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Florida, Nevada, Iowa, New Hampshire and Colorado, according to the release.

The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a CNN request for comment.

The ad is more proof that Democrats believe highlighting Trump’s attacks on New York Times reporter Serge Kovaleski, whose arthrogryposis impairs the movements in his arms, is an effective character attack against the Republican nominee.

Trump mocked Kovaleski during a campaign event in South Carolina in 2015. Trump had cited Kovaleski’s story as proof that “thousands” of Muslims were celebrating in Jersey City, New Jersey, as the World Trade Center towers burned and fell during the 9/11 terror attack — but the reporter refuted Trump’s version of the account.

Latchman displays “Cancer Survivor” tattooed across his forearms in the ad and is shown watching Trump mock Kovaleski.

Clinton also turned Trump’s comments into her first general election campaign ad.

Earlier this month, Clinton delivered an entire speech in Orlando, Florida, on helping people with disabilities, an implicit rebuke of Trump.

“Donald Trump’s mocking of someone with a disability was a troubling look into who he is as a person and proof that he lacks the character and temperament necessary to be president of the United States,” Guy Cecil, the super PAC’s top strategist, said about the new ad.

Priorities USA, a group staffed be a number of longtime Clinton aides, has been the top Clinton super PAC throughout the campaign, airing dozens of ads in swing states that are backed by millions of dollars.

The group announced earlier this month that it had raised $21 million in August, their best month in history. The group now has $41 million in the bank.