The American Crossroads super political action committee will release a digital ad to Iowans Monday that hits Hillary Clinton’s ties to Wall Street despite her claims she has fought Wall Street.
The conservative group, co-founded by former advisor to the George W. Bush administration Karl Rove, released “Hillary’s Bull Market” to the media Sunday morning, hours before Clinton will take the stage for the third Democratic debate in Charleston on Sunday night.
Although the $50,000 ad has relatively small money behind it, it representes a striking instance of conservative adoption of a populist line of attack generally used by liberal Democrats. The Karl Rove-funded super PAC is echoing criticism that fellow Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has launched.
The unsual alliance shows the power of populist appeals in a race in which alienated voters are rebelling against Washington and Wall Street.
The ad charges Clinton has funded her campaign with financing she has received from Wall Street donors. The former New York senator voted in favor of the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program, offten refered to as the Wall Street bailout, and has taken in 54 times more money from Wall Street interests than from all of Iowa.
“When it comes to Wall Street, Hillary Clinton is like Batman’s famous adversary, Two-Face,” said Ian Prior, communications director for American Crossroads. “When Hillary is courting Iowa voters, she shows her ‘anti-Wall Street’ face, but she turns to her true pro-Wall Street face when she’s grabbing speaking fees and political cash from the same industry she pretends to oppose.”
The group’s last anti-Clinton ad, “Orange is the New Black,” was released in September and targeted Clinton, wearing an orange jacket, for attention she was receiving for using a private server to access emails while secretary of state. The new ad will run online through Jan. 26.
