Trump campaign accuses Democratic group of ‘election interference’ — for quoting Trump

Donald Trump urged his supporters in 2020 not to vote by mail calling the system “totally corrupt.” Now, his campaign is speaking out against an ad featuring Trump’s own comments about mail ballots.

The ad, running on some websites in the state, is paid for by a Pennsylvania Democratic super PAC, and listed as such, but is framed to viewers as coming from the GOP.

“MAGA Patriots, listen to our president!” the ad reads as it plays video clips of Trump saying mail voting is “totally corrupt, get that through your head.”

“There’s fraud, they found ‘em in creeks, they found some with the name Trump in a wastepaper basket,” Trump says in clips from the 2020 election. The ad ends with the words: “Stand strong with President Trump against Mail in Voting!”

But this year, Republicans have reversed course on mail voting and are encouraging his supporters to vote by mail.

Trump’s campaign sent a cease-and-desist letter to the super PAC, PA Values, on Tuesday, threatening legal action and accusing it of airing a false television ad that “may interfere with the right of Trump supporters to cast their ballots in Pennsylvania.”

“Pennsylvania Values PAC is peddling lies to prevent voters exercising their right to vote,” said Brian Hughes, a senior adviser to the Trump campaign. “President Trump has been clear that his supporters should use all legal methods to cast a ballot this election. … To say otherwise in advertising, as this false TV commercial does, represents an intentional effort to mislead Pennsylvania voters, suppress Trump supporters, and disrupt a fair election this fall.”

The Trump campaign demanded the PAC “immediately end the ad” and said it “expects law enforcement officials in Pennsylvania to immediately review this issue.”

The listed treasurer for PA Values did not immediately return a request for comment.

Trump, who has railed against mail voting for years, changed his tune this year as Republicans have adopted a pro-mail-in ballot stance nationwide. In Pennsylvania, the state party is pushing a “bank your vote” campaign, encouraging voters to vote by mail.

“So if you want to save America, get your friends, get your family, get everyone you know, and vote,” Trump said at a rally at Temple University on Saturday. “Vote early, vote absentee, vote mail in, vote in person. I don’t care how they vote, just get out and vote.”

To support its legal claim, the Trump campaign pointed to a federal statute that prohibits conspiring “to injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate any person … in the free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege secured to him by the Constitution.”

“Voting is such a right,” the campaign’s lawyer said.

The campaign also cited a recent federal criminal case, United States v. Mackey, to support its assessment. In that case, a Trump supporter, Douglass Mackey, was convicted of violating federal law for sending tweets to Black voters in 2016 falsely telling them they could vote by text or social media hashtag. Mackey is appealing his conviction.

Trump is charged with violating a different section of the same statute in his election interference criminal case pending in Washington. He also has falsely claimed he won Pennsylvania in the 2020 presidential election and fought vigorously to overturn the results.

Richard Hasen, who directs the Safeguarding Democracy Project at UCLA, wrote an amicus brief in the Mackey appeal in support of Mackey’s conviction. Hasen said he doesn’t think the ad that Trump’s campaign is taking issue with violates federal law. “It’s not quite the same because the advertisement does not make a false statement, it just includes Trump’s words. It doesn’t really lie and tell people, ‘you can’t vote by mail,’” Hasen said.

Still, Hasen said the intent of the ad is dangerous. “I think it’s despicable to discourage people from voting by mail and to encourage more distrust in the system,” he said. “… Something can be despicable but not illegal.”

PA Values PAC was last active in 2018 when it ran ads against Sen. Bob Casey’s Republican opponent, former U.S. Rep. Lou Barletta. The mail-ballot ad purchase was relatively small — about $48,000 in digital advertising, according to an FEC filing.

Staff writer Anna Orso contributed to this article.