Two 2020 contenders spend big on impeachment ads
While impeachment proceedings have taken center stage on Capitol Hill throughout recent weeks, most 2020 presidential hopefuls aren’t too eager to jump on the issue as they vie for voters — with two notable exceptions.
President Trump and billionaire businessman Tom Steyer have seized on impeachment to make their cases to the American people, a new report from the Wesleyan Media Project, conducted with the Center for Responsive Politics, showed.
Trump spent $4.4 million on nearly 5,000 ads since Oct. 1 that mentioned impeachment, the data showed. That is more than 99 percent of his campaign’s airings. Trump’s campaign aired just 36 ads from the beginning of the year through October, none of which mentioned the topic.
He maintains that the impeachment proceeding is a “witch hunt” and an “assault” on the American people.
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Meanwhile, businessman Tom Steyer spent $8.5 million on more than 18,800 ads mentioning impeachment, which is 18 percent of the ads he has aired since he declared his candidacy. That is unsurprising, perhaps, considering Steyer has been calling for Trump’s impeachment for more than two years. He even started the Need to Impeach Movement.
The study found that impeachment was mentioned most often in races for the House of Representatives, as Republicans go “on offense” while Democrats remain “mostly quiet.”
Earlier this week, the House voted to impeach Trump based on two articles: abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has not transmitted the articles to the Senate, however.
Trump has said that the reason the Democrats haven’t submitted the articles to the Senate is because their case is “so bad they don’t even want to go to trial.”