Progressive group launches ads hitting Michael Bennet on judicial nominations
WASHINGTON — Demand Justice, a progressive group fighting President Donald Trump's judicial nominations, is elevating its battle with Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., over the issue with a new spate of advertisements targeting Bennet's presidential bid.
The group has been a regular critic of Bennet's, giving him an 'F' grade on its scorecard ranking lawmakers' "willingness to fight Trump’s judges." And now it's launching television and digital ads in the early-primary state of New Hampshire that accuse Bennet of "helping" Trump confirm judges.
"Bennet’s backed many of Trump’s extreme judges. He votes for them almost 70 percent of the time. Bennet even praised Neil Gorsuch when Trump picked him for the Supreme Court seat stolen from President Obama," the ad's narrator says.
"Now that Democrats are proposing ways to fix the court, Bennet is standing in the way of that, too. Hey, Michael Bennet — what gives? Helping Trump is not a good look."
Demand Justice told NBC News that it's spending $10,000 on the digital ads and then "five figures" to air the ad on WMUR in Manchester, N.H.
The spot is meant to put pressure on Bennet, who announced his presidential bid last week, and amounts to one of the first Democrat-on-Democrat fights of the presidential cycle.
The Coloradan pushed back on Demand Justice's criticism during an interview with NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday, arguing that Democrats' "non-strategic" opposition to Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch prompted Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to change Senate rules to lower the threshold for advancing Supreme Court nominations, which put Democrats in an even worse spot.
"The people behind that Super PAC that are attacking me for an 'F,' they deserve an 'F,' because they helped conceive that strategy," Bennet said.
Bennet didn't join the Democratic filibuster of Gorsuch at the time, which put up a procedural hurdle to the nomination, but the senator ultimately voted against Gorsuch's confirmation.
UPDATE: This post was updated to include spending details on the ad buy.