The law firm representing former President Obama on Wednesday sent a cease-and-desist letter to a Republican super PAC demanding that the political group immediately pull a TV ad that has been airing in South Carolina.
The ad — which was created by the Committee to Defend the President, a political group committed to seeing President TrumpDonald John TrumpSenate advances public lands bill in late-night vote Warren, Democrats urge Trump to back down from veto threat over changing Confederate-named bases Esper orders ‘After Action Review’ of National Guard’s role in protests MORE get reelected in November — goes after former Vice President Joe BidenJoe BidenHillicon Valley: Biden calls on Facebook to change political speech rules | Dems demand hearings after Georgia election chaos | Microsoft stops selling facial recognition tech to police Trump finalizing executive order calling on police to use ‘force with compassion’ The Hill’s Campaign Report: Biden campaign goes on offensive against Facebook MORE by taking Obama’s words out of context.
Titled “Enough Empty Promises,” the ad starts by saying “Joe Biden promised to help our community. It was a lie. Here’s President Obama.”
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The ad then uses excerpts from Obama’s 1995 memoir “Dreams from My Father,” taking out of context a conversation that Obama had with a barber in Chicago about the brutal and cruel treatment the black community had endured.
“Plantation politics. Black people in the worst jobs. The worst housing. Police brutality rampant. But when the so-called Black committeemen came around election time, we’d all line up and vote the straight Democratic ticket. Sell our souls for a Christmas turkey,” Obama reads in the audiobook recording.
The letter says the ad’s “unauthorized use” of Obama’s “name, image, likeness, voice and book passage is clearly intended to mislead the target audience of the ad into believing that the passage from the audiobook is a statement that was made by President Obama during his presidency, when it was in fact a statement made by a barber in a completely different context more than 20 years ago.”
In a statement to The Washington Post, Biden campaign spokesman Andrew Bates called the ad a “despicable torrent of misinformation.”
Obama spokeswoman Katie HillKatherine (Katie) Lauren HillThe Hill’s Morning Report – Presented by The American Investment Council – Trump takes his ‘ready to reopen’ mantra on the road The Hill’s Campaign Report: Democrat concedes in California House race Republican flips House seat in California special election MORE said the ad came from the “Republican disinformation playbook.”
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In response, Ted Harvey, chairman of the Committee to Defend the President, told CNN: “The Committee has a long history of taking on Joe Biden, beyond Nevada and South Carolina. President Obama made a point in his book about Democrats paying lip-service to the African-American community, and we believe his point applies perfectly to Joe Biden.”
Nonetheless, the letter concludes with Obama’s legal team firmly stating that the group “must immediately remove this ad from its Facebook page and any other social media platform or website, and must refrain from airing this ad in any form or medium in the future.”
“Further, The Committee to Defend the President must agree on behalf of itself and all affiliated entities to refrain from future misuse of President Obama’s intellectual property or right of publicity,” the letter stated.
Read the full letter below.
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