As quickly as the Republican presidential candidates are distancing themselves from the most memorable moment at Monday’s CNN/Tea Party Express debate, progressive groups are working to make sure it doesn’t fall down the memory hole.
On Friday, MoveOn fired up a powerful new rapid response campaign aimed at tying the GOP candidates to the members of the debate crowd who cheered the idea of letting an uninsured man die rather than provide him with goverment-funded care.
The Hill reports on the MoveOn campaign:
The video features Susan Grigsby, a woman who tells the story of how her brother lost his job and was left without health insurance.
“What really horrified me about that debate wasn’t the poorly phrased question, it wasn’t Dr. Paul’s answer, and it wasn’t even the scream after Wolf Blitzer asked ‘would you let him die?’ and somebody in the audience yelled ‘yeah’?,” Grigsby said in the ad. “That wasn’t as horrifying as the silence from the stage.”
The video closes with a question for all the Republicans seeking the White House.
“Dear GOP candidates,” it reads. “Answer the question.”
Check it out:
MoveOn tells TPM that the video is only being used for rapid response rather than paid advertising. But a spokesperson said “it is getting a lot of traction.”
The question the ad asks is similar to the one that asked of the candidates in paid advertisements this week from ProtectYourCare, a left-leaning pro-healthcare reform group.
The groups seem to think the moment could be a real worry for the Republicans. And if the speed with which the frontrunners have sought distanced themselves from those members of the tea party audience at the debate is any judge, the progressives may be right.
On Tuesday, Rick Perry said he was “taken aback” by the cheer. On Thursday, Mitt Romney told CNN the moment “disappointed” him.
