WASHINGTON — Donald Trump “must face consequences” for mishandling classified documents, former CIA Director Michael Hayden said in a new political ad that’s another indication of the degree to which the former president’s legal troubles will dominate the 2024 campaign.
“We don’t know who saw them, but we have to assume those documents were compromised,” Hayden says in the one-minute ad, which will begin running Monday in three presidential battleground states.
The ad — funded by the Republican Accountability Project — shows photos allegedly depicting classified document folders and boxes stacked up in common areas of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. Trump was indicted last month on 37 felony counts stemming from his alleged handling of the documents.
While most of Trump’s Republican rivals have shied away from condemning him — and the indictment hasn’t dented his poll numbers or his fundraising — the ads show that there is a faction of the party that is willing to speak out against the former president.
The Republican Accountability Project is putting more than $422,000 behind the new ad in Georgia, Arizona and Wisconsin. It’s the latest salvo in what they say is a $2 million campaign focusing on Trump’s indictments and running primarily on Fox News and CNN.
Outside groups are seizing on the court cases to cut attack ads in an attempt to undermine Trump’s standing with Republican voters. Trump now enjoys an average 32-point lead over the rest of the Republican field, and his edge has only grown since the June 13 indictment.
Those groups include the Republican Accountability Project, part of Defending Democracy Together, and the Lincoln Project. Both are made up of current and former Republicans who see Trump as a threat to national security and democratic norms.
Hayden, 78, suffered a stroke in 2018 and speaks haltingly in the ad. A political independent, he served in various top intelligence roles under Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama.
In 2020, Hayden endorsed Joe Biden, saying that while he disagreed with many of the Democrat’s policies, “Biden is a good man. Donald Trump is not.”
A retired four-star Air Force general, he also signed on to an October 2020 letter saying leaked e-mails from Biden son Hunter Biden’s laptop had “all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.” Trump has called that letter “fake and treasonous” and blames it for his 2020 reelection loss.
