Pennsylvania GOP Senate hopeful Dave McCormick on Monday called for the suspension of “negative advertising” in his race against Democratic incumbent Bob Casey after the near-assassination of Donald Trump.
“In light of the assassination attempt on President Trump in Butler, I agree with President Biden and propose to Senator @Bob_Casey we both suspend our negative advertising,” McCormick posted on X.
“This is a time to come together as Americans to recognize that what makes our country and its people exceptional transcends party,” the Republican challenger said. “Let’s take some time to put aside the negativity.”
Casey’s campaign Monday directed The Post to reports confirming that it began temporarily pulling all of its TV ads Saturday.
“On Saturday evening after the shooting, the Casey campaign worked with stations to stop advertising temporarily,” Casey spokeswoman Maddy McDaniel said in a statement. “The campaign will work to resume communication with voters in the days ahead to educate Pennsylvanians on Senator Casey’s record, his opponent’s record, and the stakes of this Senate race.”
A campaign official for President Biden’s re-election effort also announced that night that it was “pausing all outbound communications and working to pull down our television ads [in the presidential campaign] as quickly as possible.”
McCormick and Casey have both endorsed their party’s presumptive nominees, as Trump and Biden prepare to clinch the necessary delegates to run at the top of the Republican and Democratic tickets in November.
Biden, 81, called for national unity in an Oval Office address Sunday after Trump’s near-assassination, urging all Americans to “lower the temperature in our politics and to remember that while we may disagree, we are not enemies.
“We are neighbors, we are friends, co-workers, citizens, and most importantly, we are fellow Americans,” the president affirmed, saying he was “grateful” that Trump, 78, survived. “We must stand together.”
McCormick, 58, was at the Trump rally during the shooting and wrote an eyewitness account for the Journal the next day.
Trump was grazed on the right ear by a bullet, while Corey Comperatore, a beloved father hailed as a “hero” by Trump and Biden, was killed, and two other bystanders were wounded.
“One inch. That’s how close America came to losing Donald Trump to an assassin’s bullet Saturday evening — and that inch may be a metaphor for how close we are to an internal breakdown in the greatest country the world has ever known,” the Senate Republican candidate wrote, noting that the gunfire from 20-year-old loner Thomas Matthew Crooks “whizzed over my own head, too.
“Mr. Trump’s critics need to acknowledge that he isn’t Hitler or the devil. He’s a legitimate political candidate, and the contest for the presidency should be fought over ideas and leadership traits, not through calumny that can incite violence,” McCormick said, criticizing House Democrats who had previously introduced a bill to strip the 45th president of Secret Service protection.
The McCormick campaign has run TV ads hitting Casey for having concealed Biden’s mental slippage and being one of the few Senate Democrats to stand by the president after his disastrous debate performance against Trump on June 27.
The Casey campaign produced ads attacking McCormick, a former CEO for the massive hedge fund Bridgewater Associates, for having invested in a “website that platforms Holocaust denial” and for being a “Connecticut millionaire” who left Pennsylvania, the state of his birth, only to return before running for office.
In May, Keystone Renewal, the super PAC backing McCormick, announced a $30 million ad buy for TV spots in Pennsylvania, the New York Times reported.
At least $82 million had already been spent on ads by both the McCormick and Casey campaigns by the start of June, according to the outlet.
With just 112 days until Election Day, Casey is polling ahead of his Republican opponent by around 4 percentage points, according to the RealClearPolitics aggregator.
