Politics

Mary Landrieu's Campaign Ad Has a Fake-Looking Reenactment of a Hearing

As soon as Sen. Mary Landrieu released her first re-election ad, she was hit with a wave of criticism (and jokes) over her very obviously fake re-enactment of 2013 hearing — she fixes a line she flubbed in the original.

By Arit John
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As soon as Sen. Mary Landrieu released her first re-election ad, she was hit with a wave of criticism (and jokes) over her very obviously fake re-enactment of 2013 hearing — she fixes a line she flubbed in the original. Now Landrieu's staff is countering that under Senate rules, footage from government cameras is not allowed in campaign ads, according to NBC.

Landrieu is in a tough re-election campaign — The Washington Post just called her the most endangered candidate in the Senate —  and this ad is meant to emphasize how she's stood up for Louisiana against Washington (and President Obama). The scene in question appears about halfway through the ad, where Landrieu appears on "Eye on Washington," a fake show. As the conservative Weekly Standard pointed out, "the reenactment fixes a verbal flub from Landrieu's original speech. Originally, she said 'Do you think there are a bunch of fairy godmothers out there that just wish a magic wand?'" Emphasis added — you can watch the real-life scene here, two and a half hours in. In the ad she fixes "wish" with "wave." Others just made jokes about how fake the scene looks:

Whether or not Landrieu used fake footage to save face, according to the Senate's rules, she's not allowed to use the real footage. As NBC reports, the Standing Orders of the Senate read, “the use of any tape duplication of radio or television coverage of the proceedings of the Senate for political campaign purposes is strictly prohibited.” Now she has to deal with flack from the left, too — as Talking Points Memo put it, she pretty much throws Obama under the bus.

This article is from the archive of our partner The Wire.