Families of the victims of the Aurora, Colorado shooting denounced Americans For Prosperity for photoshopping a picture of President Barack Obama and Sen. Mark Udall (D-CO) into a new ad attacking Udall on Obamacare.
“The use of an image taken from the President’s visit to Colorado to meet with us after our children were killed in the Aurora Theater shooting is an utter disgrace,” the families said in a statement on Wednesday. “And to insinuate the somber expressions were for anything other than their compassionate response to our heartbreak is beyond unconscionable. Americans for Prosperity is exploiting our tragedy for political gain and this ad should be pulled from the air immediately. We hope Colorado television stations will exercise sound judgment and not air this ad until AFP removes the image.”
The statement was sent out by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.
The photoshopped image of Udall and Obama was taken from a picture of Obama and Udall at a Colorado hospital after the Aurora shooting. Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper (D) was also featured in the photo but AFP cut that part out. The hospital background was also removed in the modified image AFP used.
The statement by the vicstims’ families was signed by: “Theresa Hoover, mother of AJ Boik, Sandy and Lonnie Phillips, parents of Jessica Ghawi,, Terry and Tom Sullivan, parents of Alex Sullivan and Caren [and] Tom Teves, parents of Alex Teves.”
Wednesday afternoon AFP said it would remove the image from its ad, according to Denver’s KDVR.