GOP ads target Murphy on defense, border wall

Republicans launched ads Monday criticizing U.S. Rep. Stephanie Murphy and nine other House Democrats for opposing the defense bill that would also pay for President Donald Trump’s proposed border wall.

The ads use imagery ranging from masked terrorists holding machine guns to the word “Freedom” in the colors of the U.S. flag and images of almost every major Islamist terror attack over the past few years from Boston to San Bernardino — but not the Pulse shootings — as well as ominous shots of bags, strollers and mannequins overturned in empty restaurants and malls.

But the ads, entitled “Terror” and “Missed Call,” never specifically say what votes or bills it refers to when it claims Murphy “opposed military resources to keep America safe.”

The National Republican Congressional Committee said the ads were about Murphy and other Democrats’ vote on the Make America Safe Again Act, the defense appropriations bill opposed by all but five Democrats. Four Republicans also opposed it.

Murphy, D-Winter Park, said in a statement after the July vote that she opposed the bill because of $1.6 billion in border wall funding, saying its addition to a defense appropriations bill was “once again politicizing our national security.”

“While I would have supported a clean defense bill — especially since I helped write and pass its authorization as a member of the House Armed Services Committee — I cannot fund the President’s ill-conceived wall at the expense of my state,” Murphy said.

The ads come just a few days after Murphy and other congresspeople met with Trump at the White House, with Murphy saying she thinks her party can work with Trump on issues ranging from immigration to tax reform.