NRA Makes $2M Pro-Trump Benghazi Ad Buy

Marine Corps vet who fought against Libyan assault featured in 'Stop Clinton' promo
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 29, 2016 10:26 AM CDT

One of the biggest political ads for Donald Trump yet is being released, and none other than the National Rifle Association is behind it, USA Today reports. The NRA's Political Victory Fund PAC put up $2 million to back the 30-second spot, the association's first ad campaign of Election 2016, and it's going right for one of Hillary Clinton's weak spots: Benghazi. The "Stop Clinton, Vote Trump" ad, which will air in six battleground states, puts security contractor and Marine Corps veteran Mark "Oz" Geist front and center to blast Clinton based on his own experiences fighting the attack on the US mission in 2012, which killed four Americans. As he strolls through a cemetery, Geist says, "A lot of people say they're not going to vote this November because their candidate didn't win. Well, I know some other people who won't be voting this year, either. Hillary as President? No thanks. I served in Benghazi. My friends didn't make it. They did their part. Do yours."

A Trump aide tweeted a picture Tuesday that said Clinton "murdered" Ambassador Chris Stevens, and Trump himself used Benghazi to lay into Clinton last week, tweeting, "If you want to know about Hillary Clinton's honesty & judgment, ask the family of Ambassador Stevens." But in an interview Tuesday in the New Yorker, Dr. Anne Stevens, the ambassador's sister, concedes that the Libyan facility wasn't adequately protected—but she notes that wasn't Clinton's fault. "The Benghazi Mission was understaffed. … But, again, Chris knew that. He decided to take the risk to go there. It is not something they did to him. It is something he took on himself." She adds that both the GOP and Democrat Benghazi reports that came out this week didn't seem to offer "anything new," her brother's death has been "politicized," and "I don't see any usefulness in continuing to criticize [Clinton]. It is very unjust." (What does this ad mean for Trump's relationship with the NRA?)

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