Top House Republican Uses Russian Stock Footage In Pro-Trump Campaign Ad

[ffr]

Source: PoliticusUSA

Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), top Republican in the House of Representatives, used Russian stock footage in a pro-Donald Trump video he posted to his Twitter account on Monday.

According to The Hill, “McCarthy released the ad on Twitter defending the president amid the impeachment inquiry and as the 2020 election approaches. But one of the clips in the ad was discovered to be stock footage from Russia.”

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

Read more: https://www.politicususa.com/2019/11/25/top-house-republican-uses-russian-stock-footage-pro-trump-campaign-ad.html

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What if I told you that your ad included clips produced in Russia? From the RePuticans direct from Russia to American television sets.

Original story from The RePutican Hill

[hvn_nbr_2]

1. Unrelated to the content of your post, I like your term RePuticans

I've come up with several similar names, but I like the sound and cadence of yours better.

[ffr]

2. Wish I could take credit. It was posted on DU this morning

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100212727358

[JoeOtterbein]

3. K n R ! Thanks for posting!

[dalton99a]

4. Kick

[PSPS]

5. "All roads lead to putin"

[Julian English]

6. We now have Kremlin Kevin to go with Moscow Mitch

You fire Rohrabacher the Russkie and more just pop up.

[lagomorph777]

11. Boom! Dana Russiabacker, Leningrad Lindsey, Moscow Mitch, Kremlin Kevin!

Well done!

[mwb970]

7. republicans are not Americans any more. What did you expect??

[SomewhereInTheMiddle]

8. I hate to say it ....

As ironic as this is, I think it is a tempest in a teapot, if that.

I have produced videos professionally before. When I used stock footage or photos I never asked or knew the national origin of the media.

Occam's Razor leads me to believe this is probably the case here. Someone used footage that fit their narrative without looking into the national origin. That seems more likely to me than this is very subtle plot to take over the US by a peer competitor.

This is not to say that Russia has not tried to influence our, and many other, election. Nor to say that they will not try again.

I just think the use of this particular clip more likely results from ignorance than malice.

But I could be wrong.

[yardwork]

9. I disagree, because there are many other indications that Russia is running Trump's campaigns.

The New York Times and Washington Post have published articles detailing the evidence that Russia hacked American voting machines on Election Day 2016. Books and documentaries detail the ways that Russian money funded Cambridge Analytica's propaganda campaign for Trump. Millions of dollars flowed from Russia to the NRA to run ads against Democrats. Russian troll farms used Facebook and YouTube to spread pro-Trump and anti-Clinton propaganda. And that's just a small set of examples of how Putin funded and ran Trump's election campaign.

Even the video that was shown on DU when we were hacked on election night was obviously made by an Eastern European. If you are interested in these things, look for "DU hacked election 2016" on YouTube and watch the video yourself.

[lagomorph777]

12. Coming from McCarthy, everything is malice.

This is no accident. There are waaaaaay too many accidental Russian incidents coming from Reputins.

[Sapient Donkey]

14. I agree. There isn't any gain by them making an ad this and putting it out

And there is no reason to think that these guys need Russia to make their ads for them. The ad itself is pretty standard for a US political ad. If it was a far more divisive or inciting ad then I might be more open to the idea it coming from some Russian troll shop, but even then I would need more than just a single scene that happened to be filmed in Russia.

[SKKY]

10. Didn't I read somewhere that Twitter was not allowing political ads??

[Sapient Donkey]

13. Of the ad is nonsense, but this seems like a stretch and a non-issue

They just grabbed stock footage from all over the globe and one of them happens to be in Russia. There is far more evidence of Russian ties/connections than this. Unless I am missing something, I don't see this as proving anything and is rather silly. Much like it would be silly if the republicans found a democrat had some stock footage of a field in China and they used that to prove something.

When I read the title I was expecting lots of Russia footage or RT clips.

[a la izquierda]

15. The fact that he's getting roasted on Twitter...

Last edited Wed Nov 27, 2019, 07:00 AM - Edit history (1)

And not for the footage, but for his comments, is good enough for me.

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

16. How does a purely political organization get to use a .gov suffix?

I thought that was restricted to governmental entities.