Trump Hit By Club for Growth Ad in SC: ‘Nothing Conservative’
The right-leaning political advocacy group Club for Growth launched a major attack on Donald Trump, shelling out $1.5 million to run a new TV ad telling South Carolina primary voters, “there’s nothing conservative” about the billionaire developer.
The 30-second spot that will begin airing Saturday, on broadcast, cable, and satellite stations across the Palmetto State, declares:
“There’s nothing conservative about proposing the largest tax hike in history. There’s nothing conservative about supporting socialized single-payer health care. There’s nothing conservative about abusing eminent domain for personal gain.
“There’s nothing conservative about four bankruptcies. There’s nothing conservative about giving money to the Clintons. There’s nothing conservative about Donald Trump.”
“Donald Trump is not a conservative,” said David McIntosh, president of Club For Growth’s political arm Club for Growth Action. “He is a liberal on taxes, health care, eminent domain, and government bailouts. His record of bankruptcies and of donating to the Clintons and other big-government liberals needs to be exposed.
“CFG Action exposed the truth about Trump in Iowa and those ads worked … There was a clear and steady decline in Trump’s numbers … The ads worked then and CFG Action is convinced that South Carolina Republicans will also reject Trump’s phony conservative claims.”
Trump fired back on Twitter Friday afternoon:
Nothing conservative about the Club for Growth coming into my office and demanding a $1M contribution, which naturally, they did not get.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 12, 2016
After hearing the news that they would not be able to extort $1M from me, they went hostile w/ a series of incorrect & ill-informed ads.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 12, 2016
Club For Growth and Trump have been warring for months.
Last month, McIntosh charged that Trump’s promise to force Apple to build its products in America instead of China if he is elected president violates the Constitution and the free market system.
“Donald Trump has a new enemy: your iPhone,” McIntosh declared.
Last November, McIntosh accused Trump of touting “liberal big-government policies that Democrats embrace” simply to win votes.
“Donald Trump has turned political pandering into an art form,” he said. “In Iowa, Trump gave his full support to ethanol and the federal Renewable Fuel Standard, and supported a subsidy for wind energy.”
And in September, McIntosh described Trump as the “worst Republican candidate on economic issues” and that “short of Bernie Sanders, he may be the most liberal candidate” in the race.
Trump, for his part, has trashed Club for Growth on Twitter, claiming it runs an “extortion” racket after they asked him for a $1 million donation that he declined to give. He labeled the group “phony” and its members “total hypocrites.”
Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor who recently dropped his GOP presidential bid, also tussled with Club For Growth, which dubbed him “Tax Hike Mike.”
He called the group “a bunch of rich guys sitting around writing checks to go after people they don’t like. They don’t like me because I was fighting for the guys at the bottom, not just the guys at the top.”
The Washington, D.C.-based Club for Growth describes itself as “a national network of over 100,000 pro-growth, limited government Americans who share in the belief that prosperity and opportunity come from economic freedom.”
Last month, it praised both Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Marco Rubio of Florida as “two clear Constitutional conservatives.”
http://www.newsmax.com/Headline/Trump-Club-for-Growth-Ad-South-Carolina/2016/02/12/id/714071/