Seeking to Muddy Waters on Layoffs, Conservative Group Unleashing $6 Million Ad Campaign Against President Obama* and Solyndra
EmailAmericans for Prosperity, the conservative advocacy group that promotes lower taxes and fewer regulations for businesses, is unleashing a $6 million ad campaign against President Obama leading up to the State of the Union on January 24, ABC News has learned.
The ad contains claims that are not tethered to facts. It seeks to capitalize on one of the more uncomfortable spectacles of the Obama administration – a major loan that went through, to a company tied to financial supporters of the president, despite repeated warnings that it was not a good use of taxpayer dollars.
The campaign will be the first multimillion-dollar TV ad buy of 2012 attacking President Obama, in what will no doubt prove a long year full of nasty political attacks.
The campaign will focus $5 million in TV ads that will start running Monday afternoon on network and cable outlets in battleground states Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, Virginia and Wisconsin. The group thought about running the ads in Florida, but decided against it since the Sunshine State’s airwaves are saturated with ads about the January 31 GOP primary. An additional $1 million-plus will buy ads on social media websites.
This ad picks up where AFP’s last ad left off. Last Fall the group launched a $2.4 million ad campaign against President Obama also focusing on the Solyndra controversy.
The 60-second TV ad seems an attempt to muddy the waters amidst the charges against GOP frontrunner Mitt Romney and his tenure at Bain Capital, a firm that engaged in leveraged buyouts of companies that sometimes cost American workers their jobs, a fact that Romney’s opponents both Democrat and Republican are pouncing upon. In the new AFP ad, the president is depicted as backing $535 million in loan guarantees to Solyndra because campaign contributors ran the company.
“We wanted to roll this out before the State of the Union,” AFP president Tim Phillips told ABC News. “We anticipate that the president is going to launch back into this class warfare/envy assault that he’s been doing for several months now. We want citizens to know he’s the one taking care of his very-well heeled donors and contributors with taxpayer money. It’s a good counterpoint for folks to know that.”
“We all know about Solyndra,” the ad begins. “The White House emails. The FBI raids.”
The ad depicts the president as giving “Solyndra half a billion in taxpayer money. Politics as usual. Within the administration, the company’s potential collapse had long been discussed. Knowing all along Solyndra would have to fire their workers. But Solyndra held off until after the 2010 elections.”
That White House officials “knew all along” that Solyndra would have to fire their workers isn’t true. The ad is referring to an email released two months ago indicating that an adviser to the company’s main investor, Argonaut Equity, wrote on Oct. 30, 2010, that officials from the Department of Energy “did push very hard for us to hold our announcement” of layoffs “to Nov. 3rd – oddly they didn’t give a reason for that date.”
The 2010 midterm elections were November 2, 2010.
(After this blog was posted on Friday afternoon, another email indicating White House knowledge of pending layoffs was reported, by Bloomberg News. On October 27, 2010, White House adviser Heather Zichal wrote to other White House advisers: “Here’s the deal — Solyndra is going to announce they are laying off 200 of their 1200 workers. No es bueno.”)
The ad says: “1,100 workers had no idea that they would be fired, but the Obama administration knew. All that mattered was the 2010 election – ‘optics,’ not workers.”
While it may be that White House officials wanted the announcement to be made after the November 2010 elections – the only proof of that is that one e-mail, and the White House denies the charge — the layoffs that were announced were not as AFP describes. What is true: the day after the 2010 elections, on November 3, Solyndra announced it would lay end its contracts with more than 100 contractors, lay off 40 employees, and close one of its factories.
It wasn’t until nine months later, in August 2011 that Solyndra filed for bankruptcy protection, laying off 1,100 full-time and part-time workers.
At the time that email was released in November, Energy Department spokesman Damien LaVera told ABC News: “The Republican report cites internal email from Argonaut about the timing of a press release. But as the 180,000 pages of documents that the Department of Energy turned over to the Committee indicate, the Department’s decisions about this loan were made on the merits, based on extensive review by the experts in the loan program — and nothing in this Republican Committee memo changes that.”
“It’s not about people, it’s politics,” continues the ad, describing the Solyndra workers as feeling “betrayed,” with 90% of them remaining unemployed.
The ad features George Stephanopoulos asking President Obama in an October 2011 ABC News/Yahoo interview if he regretted holding up Solyndra as a model for jobs and clean energy.
In the ad, the president replies, “No I don’t…overall it’s doing well.”
The full quote is: “No, I don’t, because if you look at the overall portfolio of loan guarantees that have been provided– overall, it’s doing well.”
“Tell President Obama American workers aren’t pawns in your political games,” the ad concludes.
You can watch the video here:
Americans for Prosperity is partially funded by the billionaire Koch brothers, who have spent millions of dollars in recent years to advocate for politicians who share their conservative views. In 2010, the Obama team and Democrats tried to make a campaign issue about the Koch brothers and independent groups that don’t have to disclose their donors, to little avail.
That year we interviewed Phillips and asked him why he wouldn’t disclose his donor lists. “When you have the President of the United States attacking your organization, which he’s doing, it’s fair game, but if he attacks individual Americans, then that’s wrong,” he told us. “And if we disclose our financial supporters, that’s exactly what would happen.”
In June 2011, Charles Koch referred to the 2012 elections this way: “We have Saddam Hussein, this is the Mother of All Wars we’ve got in the next 18 months.”
-Jake Tapper
*This post has been updated with the information about the October 27, 2010 Zichal email.
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Rick Santorum Defends Earmarks
Great – a secret group of wealthy Americans attempting to manipulate the country with millions and millions of dollars of half lies and propaganda. Much wants more.
Posted by: Dane | January 13, 2012, 5:59 pm 5:59 pm
Washington allocates capital, and taxpayers pick up the tab if those choices go bust. What a scam.
Posted by: free_2_choose | January 13, 2012, 6:22 pm 6:22 pm
What a waste of money. Any thinking person knows that our $530 million had Obama’s mitts all over it. Duh.
Posted by: s | January 13, 2012, 6:31 pm 6:31 pm
What a waste of money. Any thinking person knows that our $530 million had Obama’s mitts all over it. Duh.
Posted by: s | January 13, 2012, 6:31 pm 6:31 pm
Actually, any thinking person would want to see proof, not condemn someone on what they ‘think’ might have happened.
p.s. – the $530 million is nothing compared to the $9 BILLION the Bush administration and Halliburton ‘misplaced’ in Iraq.
Posted by: Dave | January 13, 2012, 6:45 pm 6:45 pm
Solyndra is just the tip of the iceberg of money squandered by the Obama Administration! People need to keep this waste in mind as they pay their taxes in April and when they vote in November!
Posted by: Common _ Sense | January 13, 2012, 7:20 pm 7:20 pm
Obama is CLEARLY tied to crony capitalism, regarding Solyndra……..and I suspect others as well.
Posted by: Rick McDaniel | January 13, 2012, 7:21 pm 7:21 pm
I would trust our intellectual President with my tax money any day of the week.Just because the Republicans wanted to sabotage Solyndra doesn’t mean that it was a bad investment for America.The President was a straight A student who took enough science courses to understand the physics behind the perils of Global Warming-perils that can’t be obscured by right wing slander against Drs. Mann and Hansen, nor phony so-called e-mails.While we finally have an intellectual in the White House who writes his own books,who writes all of his own speeches,who by sheer academic excellence became President of the Harvard Law Revue- the Republicans run lightweghts like Santorun,Perry,Romney and Gingrich who have never seen the inside of an Ivy League college and have never taught at the college level like President Obama.
Posted by: gobama | January 13, 2012, 8:16 pm 8:16 pm
Expect Mr. Obama to up his game with many policies for job creation in the coming months. Election season is in gear.
Posted by: young_voter | January 13, 2012, 8:18 pm 8:18 pm
According to a CBS News investigation, the controversial government loan to now-bankrupt Solyndra wasn’t an isolated incident. “CBS This Morning” reporter Sharyl Attkisson explained, “We identified 11 green energy companies beside Solyndra that, together, got billions of tax dollars then declared bankruptcy or are suffering other serious financial issues.”
A CBS graphic blared, “The New Solyndras.” Co-host Charlie Rose touted this scoop as one “you’ll only see on” CBS.” It will be interesting to see if ABC and NBC follow up on the investigation’s findings that there is “a pattern of the government pouring your tax dollars into clean energy.” Attkisson exposed a $43 million loan to a “dismal” green energy company and another linked to Harry Reid.
Time to do a little better at covering for Obama ABC…..
OBAMA_______VS______AMERICA
Posted by: yep I said that | January 13, 2012, 8:38 pm 8:38 pm
Young voter, it is already happening. New jobless claims are dropping every week and unemployment is falling every month. we are out of the economic woods-and the Republicans can’t stand it.Pretty good for a descendent of slaves,don’t you think?
Posted by: gobama | January 13, 2012, 8:43 pm 8:43 pm
lGOBAMA | JANUARY 13, 2012, 8:16 PM 8:16 PM posts:…….”The President was a straight A student who took enough science courses to understand the physics…..” and ” we finally have an intellectual in the White House who writes his own books,who writes all of his own speeches,who by sheer academic excellence became President of the Harvard Law Revue….”…..
Sorry, but it appears that we have here another confused Liberal……
Records NOT released by Obama——Occidental College records…Columbia University records…Columbia thesis “Soviet Nuclear Disarmament”….Harvard Law School records…A search of the HeinOnline database of law journals turns up exactly nothing credited to Obama in any law review anywhere at any time.———So your intellectual, straight “A” president appears for some reason to be hiding his stellar academic record.
Posted by: free_2_choose | January 13, 2012, 9:57 pm 9:57 pm
Poor Jake. This month he’s playing O’Bozo Administration Shill, and the timing of this expose might affect which parties Jake gets invited to after the State-of-the-Onion Propaganda Show — he just HAS to defend O’Bozo this time!
Posted by: Jerome | January 13, 2012, 10:02 pm 10:02 pm
We all know why they want to muddy the waters.
Mitt Romney’s job creation claims are dwindling fast …. by the General Election they will have disappeared and we’ll be discussing the net losses. Is there anything in his stump speeches that is true?
I’ll bet y’all 10k you can’t find much. His first name isn’t Mitt Romney, he didn’t create jobs, he’s never been worried that he’d get a pink slip. Its true he became very unpopular with his constituents in Massachusetts, but he didn’t run for re-election because of that. He basically quit. CBPP corrected another one of his falsehoods @ “Romney’s Charge That Most Federal Low-Income Spending Goes for “Overhead” and “Bureaucrats” Is False:For Major Low-Income Programs, More Than 90 Percent Goes to Beneficiaries”-CBPP. He blamed Obama for our credit rating downgrade when it was clear that it was Republicans who are responsible. Americans agree in poll after poll. They also lie the blame for our economy at the feet of Republicans. Romney claimed he went back to the private sector after serving as governor. That’s not true either. He started a presidential campaign.
And, for the record, corporations aren’t people, my friends.
Also, his business experience isn’t necessarily transferable in any beneficial way to being a Commander in Chief or the President of the United States. Herbert Hoover was a business man. George W. Bush had an MBA.
Posted by: Kimberly | January 13, 2012, 10:03 pm 10:03 pm
A good article to read on the Koch brothers is Jane Mayer’s highly touted New Yorker article called Covert Operations, the billionaire Koch brothers who are waging a war against Obama.
Posted by: P-mama | January 13, 2012, 10:16 pm 10:16 pm
If you think that the economy is improving you are drinking the Obama Administrations Kool-Aid! According to Bloomburg – Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago President Charles Evans said the drop in the unemployment rate to 8.5 percent may be partially reversed in coming months. Considering downgraded European debt, Iranian threats to close the Strait of Hormuz and a President who hellbent to destroy America by “going it alone” things can be even worse!
Posted by: Common _ Sense | January 13, 2012, 10:56 pm 10:56 pm
-and if you think the economy is bad now you haven’t seen anything yet if the Republicans get their chance to foist drastic spending cuts and austerity on the public, and slam the economy even harder. There is no business Confidence Fairy despite all the Republican claims. The Republican proposals will shrink the economy even further if they are implemented, and investors WILL flee, just like they did in Europe when similar measures were taken there.
Posted by: jumbo shrimp | January 13, 2012, 11:26 pm 11:26 pm
And if you think the economy is bad now you haven’t seen anything yet if the Republicans get their chance to foist drastic spending cuts and austerity on the public, and slam the economy even harder. There is no business Confidence Fairy despite all the Republican claims. The Republican proposals will shrink the economy even further if they are implemented, and investors WILL flee, just like they did in Europe when similar measures were taken there.
Posted by: jumbo shrimp | January 13, 2012, 11:32 pm 11:32 pm
Overall, not a particularly good ad. Too complex, and not very alarming news. It sounds like an editorial from the Wall Street Journal.
Posted by: Denise O. | January 14, 2012, 12:38 am 12:38 am
Overall, not a particularly good ad. Too complex, and not very alarming news. It sounds like an editorial from the Wall Street Journal.
Posted by: Denise O. | January 14, 2012, 12:38 am 12:38 am
It looks like they’re trying to make President Obama seem like a Republican.
Posted by: Jack | January 14, 2012, 3:26 am 3:26 am
Jake why don’t you talk to Brian Ross and get up to speed on the scandals. There is Fast and Furious, Lightsquared, Siga, Hunter/Beechcraft, and the other ELEVEN energy loans to bundler/contributors by the DOE going broke with billions of taxpayer dollars. There are so many of them people might think this entire administration was just an organized crime syndicate using the federal government to steal and pass out kickbacks. The Koch brothers are paying for putting out information that most of the press won’t cover. Talk to Bryan.
Posted by: Barbara | January 14, 2012, 6:01 am 6:01 am
barbara wrote:”The Koch brothers are paying for putting out information that most of the press won’t cover. ”
.
Which is why ABC News should be registered as a Super PAC for oBama. Sure makes it easy to do whatever you want when the news media protects you.
Posted by: Alo E. Vera | January 14, 2012, 9:51 am 9:51 am
Republicans lying about the president. What a shock….(yawn)
Posted by: A Cynic | January 14, 2012, 10:54 am 10:54 am
Congratulations Jake Tapper and ABC.
In this age of “fact-free” media, it is refreshing to see someone actually dissect the truth and lies of a campaign ad! Kudos to you!
But I implore…
Do not stop here! This is what has been missing from the majority of America’s mainstream media-actual facts!! Even the sites that are geared specifically toward fact checking often fail today (yes, Politifact, I mean you..).
The Big 3 networks(and the cable news channels) have an obligation to report facts, not trumped up ideology. I want more of this…I want every quote and interview with every politician to be examined this thoroughly.
Posted by: Aaron | January 14, 2012, 11:25 am 11:25 am
Bravo Jake !
Nice to see some good journalism, instead of the Stenographers that dominate news cycles … keep up the good work !
Posted by: Canukistan | January 14, 2012, 1:05 pm 1:05 pm
Well done Mr. Tapper – this is what the media should have been doing all along. It’s necessary to air the obvious lies and distortions – not only to protect the witless rubes that don’t know any better and buy anything they hear, but also to save the rest of us from them and the damage their ignorance could cause post-election.
Posted by: Jilli | January 14, 2012, 1:47 pm 1:47 pm
Ups to you, Jake. Judging from the comments here… it’s about someone took the time to debunk the propaganda. A lot of people believe this manipulative conservative political ads…. so it is nice to find the media step up to the plate and debunk their smear ads.
Posted by: blip | January 14, 2012, 2:00 pm 2:00 pm
Okay… so the only evidence that Obama pushed the layoffs after the election was “that one email” – which was release by the administration, yet they claim not to believe it’s real?… and the other emails that were part of last night’s regular Friday Night Document Dump (which, I guess, you missed)… and the fact that IT ACTUALLY HAPPENED. The layoffs did start on Nov 3rd. Seems to me that when Bush was in office, you needed far less to get your panties in a bunch. Hell, you even conducted a two year investigation even after you knew Richard Armitage was the villain. C’mon leftwinger’s… where’s the outrage?
Posted by: jrobinson | January 14, 2012, 3:30 pm 3:30 pm
Whether by design or by incompetence this President is ruining our country and our economy on a scale never before seen – we are so deep in debt we may never get out. Yet the fawning sycophantic press corpse (sic, per Obama the world’s smartest man) still provides Obama cover no matter what. And the ignorant still believe them. A nation of sheep breeds a government of wolves.
Posted by: Not Chicken Little | January 14, 2012, 4:10 pm 4:10 pm
this President is ruining our country and our economy on a scale never before seen – we are so deep in debt we may never get out.
Posted by: Not Chicken Little | January 14, 2012, 4:10 pm 4:10 pm
Start here and you might get a glimmer of reality – over $1.25 TRILLION of the current debt ‘attributed’ to Obama resulted from interest on the debt George W. Bush left. That’s just the interest on the debt Bush left, never mind the war commitments, the destroyed revenues due to the economic collapse on his watch, the unpaid for seniors drug plan,the huge deficits from his tax cuts, and on and on.
It’s hard to tell if you right wingers are outright liars, or just ignorant.
Posted by: Brad | January 14, 2012, 4:23 pm 4:23 pm
@gobama:
“I would trust our intellectual President with my tax money any day of the week.”
And a fool and his money are soon parted. Tragically, the fool in this case is the US public.
“Just because the Republicans wanted to sabotage Solyndra doesn’t mean that it was a bad investment for America.”
Bzzzzzt. Reality sabotaged solyndra. That and horrid mismanagement of cash. It was a profoundly stupid “investment”, as it was basically a payoff to campaign bundlers.
“The President was a straight A student who took enough science courses to understand the physics behind the perils of Global Warming”
Bzzzzzt. The perfomance of our current “president” indicates he was a D- student at best. As he won’t release any transcripts, no one can prove just how poorly he performed in all his private schools. Also, no transcripts, no way to know if jugears took any science classes. But nice try on the fantasy, gobama.
“-perils that can’t be obscured by right wing slander against Drs. Mann and Hansen, nor phony so-called e-mails.”
Again, it ain’t right wing slander, it’s reality you dunce.
Whatever axeltoad is paying you, it’s too much. Your uh, “advocacy” is appallingly lame.
Posted by: yeh sherrr | January 16, 2012, 9:14 am 9:14 am
gee, if Romney as CEO vice the gov had done the same then I guess it would be OK. An investment in Solar was in poor timing re China eating their lunch re a drastic drop in price.
Posted by: Carl | January 16, 2012, 12:03 pm 12:03 pm
Obama’s lies won’t work twice so he has to own up to the debt, the economy and all the fiascos like Solyndra. All the kool-aid in the world won’t help this time.
Posted by: Truth | January 16, 2012, 1:59 pm 1:59 pm
Obama’s lies won’t work twice so he has to own up to the debt, the economy
Posted by: Truth | January 16, 2012, 1:59 pm 1:59 pm
Over $1.25 TRILLION of the current debt ‘attributed’ to Obama resulted from interest on the debt George W. Bush left. That’s just the interest on the debt Bush left, never mind the war commitments, the destroyed revenues due to the economic collapse on his watch, the unpaid for seniors drug plan,the huge deficits from his tax cuts, and on and on.
In terms of the economy, we’ve gone from losing 8 million jobs under the economic crash on Bush’s watch to gaining 2 million jobs in the last year on Obama’s watch.
Posted by: Brad | January 16, 2012, 8:14 pm 8:14 pm