Donald Trump Super PAC Readies Huge Support For Bernie Sanders On Super Tuesday, Democratic Consultant Warns
After reports surfaced last week that the Russian government may be intervening in the 2020 Democratic presidential campaign to promote the candidacy of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, reports now say that Sanders’ campaign is receiving aid from another seemingly unlikely source: Donald Trump. Or at least, from a super PAC closely tied to Trump’s campaign.
Encouraged by the Nevada results, according to Democratic consultant Simon Rosenberg of the liberal New Policy Institute think tank in Washington, D.C., the same super PAC is now likely to step up spending on ads to help Sanders in the crucial Super Tuesday states of California and Texas, as well as others on March 3.
Sanders won the Nevada caucus on Saturday, with strong support from Hispanic voters. He won 51 percent of that voting bloc, according to a Politico account. Some of that support from Hispanic voters may have been the result of a major advertisement attacking Sanders’ rival, former Vice President Joe Biden.
The ad was paid for, at a cost of $225,000, by the Committee to Defend the President, a super PAC that supports Trump, according to a report by The Hill. The pro-Trump super PAC also spent $30,000 on digital advertising in Nevada.
The anti-Biden ad slammed the former vice president over his alleged record on immigration. Prior to the Nevada caucus, polling showed Biden and Sanders neck and neck among Hispanic voters, who comprise about 30 percent of the Nevada electorate, according to The Hill. On Saturday, Biden took only 17 percent of the vote in that demographic, 34 points behind Sanders.
“How are Democrats supposed to handle Trump so aggressively intervening on behalf of Bernie?” Rosenberg asked on his Twitter account, after predicting that the pro-Trump super PAC will air the same anti-Biden ad in Super Tuesday states.
The Committee to Defend the President was founded in 2013 as the Stop Hillary PAC, according to a FactCheck account. The group officially changed its name in January, 2017, following Trump’s win in the 2016 election against Clinton.
The group was founded by Guy Short, a Republican consultant who worked for the presidential campaign of Texas Sen. Ted Cruz in 2016. The Committee to Defend the President is legally allowed to act as both a super PAC and a traditional PAC. While traditional PACs may contribute funds directly to a candidate’s campaign, super PACs may act only on behalf of a candidate, but are not permitted to coordinate with the candidate’s campaign.
As long as it keeps separate bank accounts for each purpose, the pro-Trump super PAC may serve both functions.
