The Most Ludicrous Republican Attack Ads on Jon Ossoff

Tuesday's special election in Georgia's Sixth District threatens to dethrone Republicans from a House seat the party has held since 1979. This is the suburban Atlanta turf that gave Congress former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and current Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price—yet Jon Ossoff, a 30-year-old centrist Democrat, could very well wind up being its next representative.

Like every congressional race since the 2016 election, the battle between Ossoff and Republican Karen Handel has become a symbolic conflict. If Ossoff wins, more than anything else it will show how much some nominally Republican voters dislike Donald Trump, and how passionate Democrats are about retaking Congress.

Millions and millions in direct donations and contributions to outside groups have made this the most expensive House race ever. Trump himself has tweeted about the race a handful of times—once misspelling the name of the candidate he's endorsing as "Handle"—attacking Ossoff for not actually living in the district he wants to represent, along with berating him for wanting to "raise taxes and kill healthcare."

The most shocking thing in this race, though, is the series of malicious, zany, and often incorrect ads pro-Handel groups have launched. These aren't so much endorsements of the Republican as assaults that attempt to portray the anodyne Ossoff as a tool of the evil liberal Hollywood cabal.

An ad funded by the Principled PAC that surfaced Sunday used the shooting of Republican Congressman Steve Scalise to attack "the unhinged left." "When will it stop?" the narrator asks. "It won't if Jon Ossoff wins." Cue a shot of disgraced comedian Kathy Griffin holding Trump's decapitated head as a voiceover repeating variations of "Stop Jon Ossoff" booms in the background.

A spokesperson for Handel didn't call for the ad to be removed, but said it as "disturbing and disgusting," and it was widely condemned. "As a moral and political matter, this seems to be a poor move that underestimates public disgust with vitriol and the politicization of violence," wrote anti-Trump conservative columnist Jennifer Rubin wrote in the Washington Post.

Although the Principled PAC ad is the most scandalous attack on Ossoff, the Congressional Leadership Fund, a super PAC devoted to electing Republicans to Congress, has made a handful of advertisements framing Ossoff in a similar way—as a representative of liberal coastal elites , especially Californians with wacky hats:

Another CLF spot called Ossoff a "DC liberal," chastising him for not living in the Sixth District. Almost all of the attack ads against Ossoff mention House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who is despised by conservatives.

Another line of attack links Ossoff to Hollywood more broadly. Ossoff is being painted as a carpetbagger with a slight twist: He might come from Georgia, but his campaign's money doesn't.

The CLF PAC also produced ads with video of Ossoff from his college years, playing up his youth and inexperience. He dressed up as Han Solo and made jokes about kegs! He was in an a capella group! This one is pretty good:

A more straightforwardly despicable spot is a radio ad that took a portion of the audiobook Barack Obama recorded for Dreams from My Father out of context to make it seem like the former president was asserting that people of color are voting against their interests when they support Democrats. As CNN's Andrew Kaczynski explained, the clip is actually Obama quoting a barber he spoke to shortly before Chicago elected its first black mayor in 1983.

Remember: However bad all this looks, the 2018 midterms will be so, so much worse.

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