Politifact is calling foul on a recent attack ad by Sen. Kay Hagan’s (D-NC) reelection campaign that attacks House Speaker Thom Tillis (R-NC) for calling Obamacare a “great idea.”
The ad, released a week earlier, clips Tillis saying in a radio interview that Obamacare is a great idea. The problem is, as Politifact noted, that the attack ad only included part of what Tillis said. He actually said that Obamacare is a “great idea that can’t be paid for.”
Tillis has, nevertheless, taken hits by his opponents in the North Carolina Republican primary over the remarks.
Politifact noted that prior to making the “great idea” line Tillis discussed ways to repeal the bill. Politifact ruled that the ad focuses on a “severely edited quote” and said the ad was “Mostly False.”
“In reality, both sides in this contest are trying to have it both ways. Tillis wants to trumpet his opposition to Obamacare for a Republican primary audience that detests the law, yet downplay the reality that the across-the-board repeal he calls for would eliminate some broadly popular provisions,” Politifact said. “Hagan, for her part, is trying to argue that Tillis privately supports the very Obamacare he fiercely opposes in public. But to make that argument, she’s relying on extraordinarily thin evidence. We rate Hagan’s claim Mostly False.”
The Hagan campaign denied that the ad was trying to have the ad both ways.
“Our ad says he’s trying to have it both ways, which he is,” Hagan communications director Sadie Weiner said. “He’s trying to take credit for supporting the popular parts of the law, but he has no plan to do that and the only thing he does support is full repeal, which would mean insurance companies could deny care because of a existing condition and charge women more than men.”
Listen to the Hagan ad here.
Politifact is mostly false.