A press release by the Arizona Republican Party which shows Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) opponent on a “wanted” poster riddled with bullet holes, has been denounced by Democrats, including former Rep. Gabby Giffords (D-AZ), 12 News reported Thursday.
The poster was delivered personally to McCain’s opponent Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick (D-AZ)’s office by Kevin Kuk, chief of operations for the Arizona Republican Party, 12 News reported. It gained criticism because of the bullet holes and struck a chord with Giffords who barely survived a 2011 shooting that left her with a severe brain injury.
“In a state and country that know the toll of gun violence too well, there is no room for invoking the use of firearms in our politics,” Giffords, a gun-safety advocate who was gravely wounded in the Tucson shootings five years ago, said in a statement, according to the station.
Giffords demanded an apology from the Arizona Republican Party for using the image, according to the statement provided to the station. But, Matt Specht, who is running the GOP campaign against Kirkpatrick, said that they would not apologize and it was not offensive.
“Nobody, including the hundreds of reporters who received the press release with the image, linked it to violence until the Kirkpatrick campaign tried to use it as a way to distract the media from Ann Kirkpatrick’s absence from the campaign trail,” he told the station.
The new line of attack was meant to show what the Arizona Republican Party said is a lack of public appearances by Kirkpatrick. She and McCain are in a tight race, with recent polls showing the race as a toss up.
See the full ad below via the Arizona GOP:
