October 03, 2014 01:43 PM UTC

9NEWS Busts Another Deceptive Anti-Udall TV Spot

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• by: Colorado Pols

UPDATE: In a new ad of his own, Sen. Mark Udall responds vigorously, reminding viewers of his leadership in the U.S. Senate on national security issues:

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9NEWS' Brandon Rittiman takes a dim view of a new TV spot from the National Republican Senatorial Committee, now playing in Colorado attacking Sen. Mark Udall for his supposed "weakness" on national security issues:

Explosions, tanks, rocket launchers, machine guns, and a lot of men dressed in turbans and facemasks flash by in the space of two seconds, accompanied by a dramatic crescendo, in a new ad running against Sen. Mark Udall (D-Colorado.)

It's quite apparent from this fear-montage that the strategy in the latest ad from the Republican National Senatorial Committee is hoping to paint Udall as soft on terrorism…

It's getting heavy airtime on TV screens in Colorado, but it isn't a fair argument.

Rittiman looks at the central claim, a heavily edited quote from Udall at last month's Club 20 debate in Grand Junction that the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is "does not represent a threat to this nation."

VERDICT: Deceptive

To play this sound bite with no other context about Udall's views on ISIS is totally deceptive. [Pols emphasis]

The NRSC ad makes it seem like Udall doesn't think ISIS is a threat- period.

They edited down a reply Udall gave in a debate last month to a deeply unfair soundbite…

Gardner: "Just last week, Sen. Udall said that ISIL doesn't even pose a threat to the homeland, even though he receives briefings every day."

Udall: "You can say what you want here, but you really have to look at the record. I said last week that ISIL does not present an imminent threat to this nation, and it doesn't. I sit on the armed services committee and intelligences committee. If we don't respond to the threat it represents, they will be a threat to this country." [9NEWS emphasis]

As a member of the Senate Armed Services and Select Intelligence Committees, attacking Udall on foreign policy and national security issues has always been a longshot bid against one of the Senator's strongest issues. We saw something similar when Republicans briefly attacked Udall for "not doing enough" on the issue of National Security Agency domestic surveillance, even though Udall was one of the only lawmakers privy to facts about that program making any effort to warn the American people–efforts that were at least partly vindicated by the Edward Snowden revelations. We haven't seen much from Republicans attacking Udall on the NSA lately, probably because it was too far over the top even for the detached-from-reality election season messaging we're all used to these days.

For anyone who knows Sen. Udall's record, this ad is equally dubious: but again, it's not really aimed at knowledgeable voters.