'Cease and desist': Republican demands Dem opponent stop mocking his 'fake wife and kids'
A Democratic congressional candidate was told in no uncertain terms this week to stop making fun of a MAGA Republican's fake family, according to a new report.
Eugene Vindman, a Virginia Democrat, received a cease-and-desist letter from Derrick Anderson, endorsed by former President Donald Trump, over videos accusing the unmarried Republican of misleading voters with ads featuring people who are not his wife and kids, the Huffington Post reported Friday.
Anderson’s campaign argued to Vindman and local television stations they did not have the right to air images of Ashley Cremisio and her three daughters, who are minors, according to the report.
One such ad, paid for by the House Majority PAC, shows an Anderson look-alike eating dinner and playing games with cardboard cutouts.
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The Anderson look-alike chucks a frisbee at a cardboard girl's head, pokes another daughter's cardboard face with a forkful of food, hangs a towel on his cardboard wife and cheats at a game that appears to be Monopoly.
"Derrick Anderson was caught using a fake wife and kids for his campaign," a voiceover states. "He's trying to hide that he's another extreme MAGA politician."
The Huffington Post reported one problem with the cease-and-desist letter is that the images in question remain publicly available on a National Republican Congressional Committee databank of publishable materials for super PACs to use in ads.
"In other words, Anderson is claiming Vindman can’t use these images in political ads at the same the NRCC is making them available for use in political ads," reported the Huffington Post.
"Anderson’s campaign said in a Thursday statement that Vindman is unfairly using the woman and children to 'lie' to voters about who they are."