The Clinton campaign has decided to delay a $63,000 ad buy on the Weather Channel in Florida after critics questioned whether people fleeing a killer hurricane should be subjected to presidential politics.
“We have requested that stations in Florida delay any of those ads on the Weather Channel until after the storm passes,” spokesman Jesse Ferguson said in a statement Thursday.
The modest ad buy was supposed to begin Thursday and run for five days, Politico reported.
Deadly Hurricane Matthew has already killed more than 100 people in Haiti.
“That’s a risky proposition,” Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.), chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, said of the ad buy Thursday morning on “Fox & Friends,” just hours before the Clinton campaign thought better of the move.
“I don’t know what they’re going to say. We don’t know, but clearly if they’re out being too political at a time when the country has its prayers with the people who are being affected, I think it could backfire,” added Walden.
The hurricane is expected not only to hit the Sunshine State, but also Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina, another swing state.
“This is a colossally huge and unforced error by the Clinton camp. Insensitive and will piss off Floridians,” former Jeb Bush spokeswoman Kristy Campbell said of the planned ad buy.
Florida Gov. Rick Scott has told his citizens to evacuate.
“This is serious,” Scott said Thursday. “Don’t take a chance. A small movement (of the storm) could mean a lot. That’s why we have to prepare for a direct hit. So again, if you need to evacuate and you haven’t, evacuate. This storm will kill you. Time is running out. We don’t have that much time left.”
Check out how satellites captured a demonic image of the storm: