This Democrat's campaign ad suggests Trump is the new Osama bin Laden

(Image credit: Screenshot/Twitter/HelmerVA10)

Dan Helmer is a Democratic candidate for a House seat in Virginia, and his latest campaign ad is so normal — until it isn't.

The clip starts off as these things usually do: Helmer wants you to know he's smart and principled, not like those other politicians, and he highlights a few key planks from his platform. Then things take a turn. "After 9/11, the greatest threat to our democracy lived in a cave," Helmer says in a voiceover while a picture of Osama bin Laden appears. Then, cutting to a picture of President Trump, Helmer adds, "Today, he lives in the White House."

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Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.