Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus criticized the Clinton campaign Thursday for its now-reversed decision to buy campaign ads on the Weather Channel during Hurricane Matthew.
“Couldn’t let this crisis go to waste? Shameful [Hillary Clinton’s] campaign even considered exploiting Hurricane Matthew for political gain,” the RNC chair said Thursday on social media.
“Pulling these ads after getting caught won’t cut it. [Hillary Clinton] should apologize for using storm for votes,” he said. “The people in path of #HurricaneMatthew need our prayers, support, and charity.
Priebus included a link on his social media account directing users to the Red Cross.
Clinton’s campaign announced Thursday that it would suspend its $63,000 ad buy in Florida until after the storm.
“Earlier this week we made changes to our TV ad reservations across hundreds of stations in battleground states including Florida,” campaign spokesman Jesse Ferguson said in a statement. “Less than one percent of those changes included the Weather Channel.”
“We have requested that stations in Florida delay any of those ads on the Weather Channel until after the storm passes,” the statement added.
The ad was scheduled to run from Thursday through Tuesday.
Florida officials have already ordered mass evacuations in preparation for the storm.
“This is serious,” Florida Gov. Rick Scott said this week. “Don’t take a chance. A small movement could mean a lot. That’s why we have to prepare for a direct hit. So again, if you need to evacuate and you haven’t, evacuate.”
“This storm will kill you. Time is running out. We don’t have that much time left,” he said.
On Thursday, the GOP joined with those who criticized the Clinton ad buy as exploitive.
“During a time when we should be concerned about the safety and well-being of the people in Florida, it’s shameful the Clinton campaign was even considering exploiting Hurricane Matthew for political gain by running ads on the Weather Channel in Florida,” a GOP spokesman said.
Clinton’s campaign manager, Robby Mook, responded to the criticism by accusing Republicans of making the storm polticial.
“It’s unfortunate that Chairman Priebus is trying got politicize the hurricane,” Mook told reporters.
He added in a note of explanation, “We were in the process of buying television time nationwide on hundreds of different media outlets. The Weather Channel, which is less than one percent of the television time that we were buying was part of that.
“Since the storm has clearly become very serious, we have asked the Weather Channel to roll back that buy until the storm is concluded. We don’t think that the voters in Florida need this election to get mixed up in their efforts to get information on this storm,” Mook said.
