The Democratic National Committee is launching a new ad today highlighting former Ku Klux Klan leader David’s Duke recent endorsement of third-party candidate Jill Stein.
The DNC has warned that the Green Party nominee will be a “spoiler candidate” in some swing states, like she was in 2016 for Hillary Clinton.
The spot, entitled “Company They Keep,” is set to air in the battlegrounds of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin and on cable channels nationwide, according to a DNC official who first shared the details with NBC News.
When Duke backed Stein last week, he said he was considering what was “good for white people, Europeans” and ultimately called it one of the “most important statements” he has made politically.
“We had no idea about this and are very, very not interested in David Duke’s endorsement,” Stein’s campaign manager told NBC.
“You can tell a lot about a person by the company they keep,” the ad states. “Longtime Klan leader David Duke, endorsed her. And like Trump, she’s cozied up to Vladimir Putin. Jill Stein. Look at her friends because a vote for Stein is a vote for Trump.”
A Senate Intelligence Committee report found that Russian social media efforts to meddle in the 2016 presidential election included some messaging in support of Stein.
“Jill Stein, David Duke, and Vladimir Putin may make odd bedfellows, but they all have one common goal — to beat Vice President Harris and put Donald Trump back in the White House,” DNC senior adviser Mary Beth Cahill said in a statement to NBC. “This time, Trump and his MAGA allies are openly boosting her. Don’t be played for a fool by a former KKK leader and a Russian dictator — a vote for Stein is a vote for Trump.”
Stein has previously called it a “badge of honor” to be partially blamed for Trump’s 2016 win.
Trump, for his part, said this summer of Stein: “I like her very much.”
