A "Confirm Gupta" movement by never-Trump Republican operatives is spending $1 million on an ad campaign to support the confirmation of Vanita Gupta, 46, as associate attorney general, The Washington Post reported.
"Gupta has a record of building bridges across partisan divides," the ad shared exclusively with the Post says. "So let's stop playing politics. Confirm Vanita Gupta and let's build an America we can all believe in."
The ad is being put out by Defending Democracy Together, which Bill Kristol co-founded, and will air for 30 seconds on cable networks and the Sunday political talk shows, per the report.
Gupta's Senate confirmation hearing will be March 9, along with Lisa Monaco, the nominee for deputy attorney general.
"There are Republican groups that have kicked up opposition to most of Biden's nominees, Vanita in particular," strategist Sarah Longwell, who co-founder of Defending Democracy Together and another group, Republican Voters Against Trump, told the Post. "The attacks against Vanita are particularly unfair and untrue based on what every Republican I talked to has said about her, trying to paint her as radical when she has the support of police groups.
"It is knee-jerk and doesn't comport with reality of the people who know her among conservatives and Republicans. We wanted to help elevate those voices."
Judicial Crisis Network funded an $800,000 ad buy against Gupta's confirmation, calling her a "dangerous appointee."
The group's president, Carrie Severino, called Gupta, a civil rights attorney, an "extremist," and a "liberal activist" in a piece on Fox News, saying she will lead "the far left's culture war from her government post."
But former Koch Industries executive and chairman of Americans for Prosperity Mark Holden called Gupta a "straight-shooter" who is "willing to work with anyone to get the job done — or try to get the job done," per the Post.
"Obviously, she isn't in favor of defunding the police," Holden said. "She has worked with law enforcement and done that for a long time."
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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