A CNN panel on Monday criticized a political advertisement released by Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign that targeted so-called “real men.”
The 90-second campaign ad created by commercial director Jacob Reed cut to several men repeatedly declaring they are “man enough” to support women’s rights and not be “afraid of women.” The panelists ridiculed the ad as “condescending,” inauthentic and as one that will not resonate with male voters.
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“I thought it was a fake until Jacob Reed, who did that ad, was interviewed on CNN, and I was like, ‘Oh, this guy’s real,’” Matt Gorman, a former senior adviser to the Tim Scott campaign, said. “Uh, because if you wanted to make an ad trolling, there’s no better one than that. This is the problem. We’ve talked a lot about our issues with women as a party and struggles to win them over the last couple of years. Democrats have a serious problem with men, and if you notice, too, when they’re trying to appeal to men, they’re doing it in the context of women. It’s like, ‘I’m not afraid of a woman.’ Like, that’s not a message to men. And I think that’s what they’re struggling with, they just simply don’t have a real message and no authenticity to do it.”
Former Biden White House director of message planning Meghan Hays said the messaging is “condescending” and urged Democrats to find a better messaging strategy for male voters.
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“Yeah, the message is condescending,” Hays said. “And I know it’s my party, but it just comes across as condescending, and that ad seemed like a joke to me. It’s not the way, like if a man talked to me like that, women would be up in arms … The message is just so condescending, and I think that the authenticity point is a really good one, that if Democrats really want to go after men, they need to figure out a better way to talk to them, and they need to figure out a better way that’s more genuine to who they are in their message.”
Surveys have shown a widening gender gap between Harris and Trump, with a recent New York Times/Siena College poll finding Trump with a 51% to 40% lead among men while Harris holds a 53% to 38% advantage among women voters. The vice president has also been lagging among black and Hispanic men, particularly those in the younger demographic.
READ: VP Harris Struggles To Maintain Hispanic Voter Support As Trump Gains Ground, Poll Shows
Former President Barack Obama suggested that some black, male voters may be hesitant to vote for Harris because she is a woman during a Thursday campaign stop in Pennsylvania. Harris is currently leading among young black men by a historically low 41%, dropping significantly from President Joe Biden’s 53% in 2020 and Obama’s 81% in 2012, CNN senior data reporter Harry Enten said on Monday.
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First published by the Daily Caller News Foundation.