WASHINGTON — (CNN) The Super PAC backing Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush released a new ad early Tuesday ripping his GOP rivals and accusing front-runner Donald Trump of being “reckless” and “impulsive.”
The 30-second spot from Right to Rise Super PAC, titled “Desk,” hits leading Republican contenders Trump, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio on potential vulnerabilities. The ad shows each candidate sitting at the desk in the Oval Office, while a narrator reads, “When the attacks come here, the person behind this desk will have to protect your family.”
“Will he be impulsive and reckless, like Donald Trump?” the narrator asks. “Will he have voted to dramatically weaken counter-terrorism surveillance, like Ted Cruz? Will he have skipped crucial national security hearings and votes just to campaign, like Marco Rubio?”
Cruz has been repeatedly criticized by more hawkish GOP candidates, in particular Rubio, over his Senate vote to roll back surveillance programs used by the NSA, and Bush has gone after Rubio in the past on his Senate attendance record.
And as attacks in San Bernardino and Paris have pushed national security to the front of the 2016 election, the new pro-Bush ad seeks to cast him as a steady, experienced choice for the Republican nomination.
“Twenty-seven generals and admirals support Jeb Bush, because Jeb has the experience and knowledge to protect your family,” the ad says.
“Desk” invokes a long tradition in political advertising of challenging voters to consider the stakes of an election and prioritize security concerns.
Hillary Clinton’s 2008 primary campaign delivered the “3 a.m.” ad, which asked voters to consider who was most ready to answer the phone at the White House when a crisis strikes in the middle of the night over images of children sleeping.
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