Monday, November 11, 2013
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Andrew Zucker; 504-457-8141
VIDEO: Cassidy Hides AFP Event From Campaign Schedule, Then (Literally) Thanks Secretly Funded Special Interest Group For “Mostly False” Attack Ads
PolitiFact Rated AFP Attack Ad “Mostly False” On Day Cassidy Hid Event From Campaign Schedule
New Orleans, Louisiana – On the day PolitiFact rated Americans for Prosperity’s (AFP) latest misleading attack ad against Sen. Mary Landrieu “Mostly False,” Bill Cassidy campaigned with AFP while hiding the group’s involvement from his official campaign schedule, then (literally) thanked them for their false, secretly funded attack ads.
The Advocate reports:
“[A] Democratic tracker following Cassidy around looking for potential slipups — Republicans are “tracking” Landrieu, too — filmed the events seemingly intermingling and Cassidy chatting with Americans for Prosperity staffers.
“‘Thank y’all for the ads you’re running,” Cassidy told one of the Americans for Prosperity workers.”
A tracker for the Louisiana Democratic Party caught Bill Cassidy entering the AFP event, mingling with AFP members for 30 minutes and literally thanking AFP for airing baseless and “mostly false” attack ads before being asked to leave by an unnamed AFP staffer who specifically described the event as an AFP event.
The NOLA Defender reports:
“The Democratic Party videographer continues to follow Cassidy as he works the room, but is later asked to leave by a different AFP repesentative.
“‘This is not a public event?’ the videographer asks.
“‘Nope. Not a public event. In fact, on the door, it says, ‘This area is closed,'” the AFP rep tells him.”
Both Bill Cassidy and AFP seem to have gone to great lengths to hide each other’s involvement in the same campaign event.
Cassidy advised the event as an address to the “Northshore Republican Men’s Club and the Northshore Republican Professional Women.” AFP advised it as a “Wasteful Spending and Obamacare Town Hall with former Congressman Jeff Landry,” and made no mention of Cassidy’s involvement in a post-event brief posted to their website.
“If there were any doubts Bill Cassidy was trying to hide behind a secretly funded special interest group airing false and misleading attack ads against Sen. Landrieu, these revelations should remove them entirely,” said Campaign for Louisiana Communications Director Andrew Zucker. “Not only did Bill Cassidy participate in a campaign event with AFP on the day their attack ad was rated ‘Mostly False’ by a nonpartisan fact checker, but he also hid the group’s involvement in his campaign from his official campaign schedule. Unfortunately this is further proof that he can’t be trusted to come clean with voters or fight for Louisiana families.”
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