2016 Check out Trump tape: How Democrats are using Trump's hot-mic fiasco Democratic candidates across the country are releasing ads tying local Republicans to Trump's lewd comments about women.

GOP Rep. Steve Knight is a relatively anonymous, run-of-the-mill freshman member of Congress. But Democrats hope that by the time they're done with him, voters will practically think Knight was on the bus with Donald Trump when the GOP nominee made taped, lewd comments about women over a decade ago.

Congressional Democrats are trying to make Donald Trump’s sex-talk tape stick in some of their key races around the country, unleashing a wave of attack ads trying to tie Trump's vulgar comments to their GOP opponents. A new campaign ad set to hit Los Angeles airwaves Thursday links Knight to the Republican presidential nominee’s brag that he can “grab [women] by the pussy.” (The final word is bleeped in the spot.) Then, Knight’s Democratic challenger, Bryan Caforio, tells viewers, “I know these aren't our values” and vows to stand up to Trump “unlike extremist Congressman Knight."


That comes on the heels of another ad in a different Southern California district, depicting veteran GOP Rep. Darrell Issa, a Trump supporter and newly named campaign surrogate, grinning ear-to-ear and shaking the nominee’s hand. A Trump voiceover plays in the background: “I did try to (bleep) her; she was married.”

All told, House Democrats and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee have sponsored four such ads in the five days since the controversial 2005 “Access Hollywood” video went viral. Senate Democrats are also jumping in on the action, using the video in which Trump boasts about getting away with kissing women and touching their genitals because of his “star” power.

And Democratic officials on both sides of the Capitol say there are plenty more to come.

“This is about a judgment call and the character of House Republicans, who stood with Trump for so long when he was making all these ugly attacks against women and immigrants and all these groups,” said DCCC spokeswoman Meredith Kelly. “They didn’t stop him when they could have.”

Republicans have countered that voters see Trump as his own brand, building a sort of firewall around their incumbents. Indeed, before the video was released, a number of House Republicans had unveiled internal polls showing them maintaining leads over Democratic opponents, some despite poor performance by Trump in their districts. Several independent polls also showed some members pulling ahead, as Republicans argued Trump wasn’t as toxic to Republicans' congressional majorities as many once thought.

But the scandalous new video could change everything, Democrats argue, pumping fresh oxygen into House races — and potentially even putting the House majority up for grabs, along with Democrats' quest to retake the Senate majority, too.

“These senators stood with Trump throughout his offensive campaign, and they have two bad options – either stick with him or attempt a desperate about face and jump ship to save their own political careers,” Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee spokeswoman Lauren Passalacqua said Wednesday. “The time for leadership passed and these candidates failed that test – and we’ll make sure voters know come Election Day.”

New Hampshire Democrat Maggie Hassan was the first major candidate to throw the Trump audio in the face of her GOP adversary, compounding problems for Republican Sen. Kelly Ayotte, who had already been trying to clean up recent debate comments in which she said Trump was “absolutely” a role model for children. The Hassan campaign quickly re-cut an existing television ad to include Trump’s offensive comments, in which he remarked that he moved on a married woman “like a bitch.”

In Pennsylvania, Democrat Katie McGinty spent five figures on a web ad that tied GOP Sen. Pat Toomey to Trump using a splice of the offending video. (Toomey remains the only Republican in a competitive Senate race who hasn’t taken a position on Trump’s candidacy.) And Iowa Democrat Patty Judge used a new web ad to point out that while other Republicans have rejected Trump, GOP Sen. Chuck Grassley was still standing by the nominee.

The DSCC also released its own ad Monday, running on social media, that blasted Senate Republicans for their support of Trump throughout the campaign.

The new House ad against Issa, paid for his Democratic challenger Doug Applegate, comes at a particularly awkward time. The Trump campaign on Friday announced that Issa would joining its national security advisory council.

“Darrell Issa says Donald Trump is the obvious choice for president,” the ad's narrator says. The Trump video fades back in: “You can do anything. Grab them by the pussy.”

The ad continues: “Say no to Donald Trump and Darrell Issa.”

But Issa spokesman Calvin Moore said the new ad is “as hypocritical and misleading as you can get,” adding that Issa has “condemned Donald Trump’s offensive remarks and implying otherwise is absolute dishonesty.” Moore was also quick to point out that Applegate had been accused of stalking and threatening his ex-wife, who received two temporary restraining orders against him. Issa's campaign is running its own ad on that subject.

“Voters know the difference between guilt by association and actual wrongdoing, and Doug Applegate has an ugly record of abuse," Moore said.

Democrats are likely to duplicate the same sort of ad for other vulnerable Republicans who have not renounced Trump. Prime targets might include someone like vulnerable Trump-supporting Rep. Lee Zeldin in New York.

Not even Republicans who denounced Trump this weekend following the release of the catastrophic video are safe from the ads. The DCCC says it also plans to knock vulnerable candidates who withdrew support or endorsements for Trump or asked him to step aside after the video, “which everybody is seeing as too little too late,” the DCCC's Kelly said.

That includes Republicans like Reps. Barbara Comstock (R-Va.), Mike Coffman (R-Colo.) and Erik Paulsen (R-Minn.). Democrats have already aired Trump-themed ads against Paulsen, and his opponent Terri Bonoff accuses him of ditching Trump when “it threatened his campaign.”

“Voters see this as purely a political calculation and they don’t understand why all of a sudden House Republicans are trying to separate themselves from Donald Trump when he has been this ugly person the entire time,” Kelly said. “There’s nothing new here expect for the fact that we’re 30 days from the election.”

Senate candidates are doing something similar. In Ohio, Democrat Ted Strickland has since also latched onto Trump’s lewd comments to launch a fresh attack against Republican Sen. Rob Portman, who has maintained a healthy lead over Strickland since July.

“Portman stood by Trump, even after seeing Trump brag about sexual assault. Then Portman panicked, and scrambled to save himself,” the ad’s narrator says. Though Portman denounced Trump’s comments on Friday night, he didn’t un-endorse until about a day later. “History will judge Rob Portman a coward," continues the ad, which a spokesman said was backed by a six-figure buy.

With Trump forcing them on defense, Republican candidates are trying to showcase their own female supporters and work for women in their states or districts, as Democrats try to drive that demographic away from the GOP. Much of the strategy was set in place before the surprise disclosure of the Trump tape.

Rep. Joe Heck, the GOP Senate hopeful in Nevada, released his own ads showing women praising the former physician and Army reservist, after NARAL Pro-Choice America started targeting him in an online campaign. Heck released a new ad late Tuesday showing one woman saying Heck has “cared for thousands of women.” Another continues: “including victims of sexual assault and domestic violence.”

“Female voters have always been a key constituency for Dr. Heck,” one person with knowledge of the Heck campaign said. “We have had this ad and others storyboarded for a long time.”

That mirrored tactics from Toomey, who hosted a “Women for Toomey” breakfast in Philadelphia with moderate Maine Sen. Susan Collins Tuesday, and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), whose campaign launched a coalition of female supporters on Wednesday. McCain, the 2008 GOP presidential nominee, has also revoked his endorsement.

Meanwhile, other Republicans are promoting material they believe would damage Democrats’ standing with women. In North Carolina they’re blasting candidate Democrat Deborah Ross, who was legal counsel for a teenager who sentenced to life in prison for sex assault, and in Ohio, they’re going after Strickland, who said for-profit charter schools had “raped” Ohio taxpayers. (Strickland since called it a “poor choice of words.”)

“Part of the strategy,” one national Republican strategist said, “is making our opponents unacceptable to women as well.”