Rand Paul is launching a heavy-handed attack ad against Hillary Clinton on Monday, the day after she formally announces her run for president.
The television ad is the first by a Republican presidential candidate against Clinton, and it declares that she "represents the worst of the Washington machine, arrogance of power, corruption and coverup, conflicts of interest and failed leadership with tragic consequences."
In a grim black and white, with scenes of abandoned buildings, the ad includes shots of media coverage of gifts by foreign governments to Clinton’s charitable foundation and of her use of private email as secretary of state, previewing attacks Clinton will face constantly as she campaigns over the next year and a half.
The female narrarator asks in the ad “what path will America take, will it be a path to the past, a road to yesterday, to a place we’ve been to before?”
The ad switches abruptly into color and upbeat music as it turns to shots of Paul speaking to crowds and trumpets that "it’s time for a new leader with a new way."
Paul, who had some stumbles in his own campaign rollout over the past week, faces a far more immediate political threat from fellow Republican presidential candidates like Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio than he does from the Democratic Clinton, but he’s trying to make a case that he is the clearest GOP alternative to her.
Paul, who is running for re-election as a U.S. senator from Kentucky at the same time that he runs for president, is also making the calculation that the voters won’t associate him with the same "Washington machine" that his campaign for the presidency is based on attacking.
Paul’s ad will air on cable television in the early voting primary and caucus states of Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada.
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