Billionaire Tom Steyer will not be on the debate stage with his fellow Democratic presidential candidates Tuesday or Wednesday night, but a pro-impeachment organization he bankrolls, Need to Impeach, will be spending somewhere in the mid-six-figures to air a new 32-second ad on CNN and MSNBC before and after the debates, Politico reported Tuesday morning. The commercial, called "What Mueller Said," is the first paid advertising featuring former Special Counsel Robert Mueller's high-profile testimony before two House committees last week.
"Mueller was panned last week for being short in his testimony before Congress, giving little ammo to Democrats who wanted to capitalize politically from his appearance," Politico reports, but this new ad by Mark Putnam condenses Mueller's six hours of terse answers into 32 seconds of dramatic testimony, at least from the Democratic point of view. That's no small feat: The hearings themselves were something of a critical and ratings disappointment.
The new ad features questions from House Judiciary Committee Chair Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), Rep. Val Demings (D-Fla.), and House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), and "it will be very much talked about in the next few days," Politico predicts. Watch below. Peter Weber