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Source: Reuters
Exclusive: U.S. labor powerhouse to launch anti-Trump ad campaign
WASHINGTON | BY AMANDA BECKER
The AFL-CIO, the largest U.S. federation of labor unions, will launch digital attack ads targeting Republican front-runner Donald Trump next week as part of a multi-pronged effort to derail the New York billionaires bid for the White House and dampen union workers' enthusiasm for him.
Officials at the AFL-CIO, an umbrella group of 56 unions representing 12.5 million workers, told Reuters the ads will depict Trump as anti-union, and will appear on Facebook and Twitter.
The officials said the anti-Trump advertising effort would likely expand over the coming months. At the same time, an AFL-CIO affiliate organization will ramp up a door-to-door campaign to undermine the candidate in Ohio and Pennsylvania, key battleground states in the Nov. 8 presidential election.
"Donald Trump has tapped into the very real and understandable anger of working people. But while he says he's with America's working people, when you look close, it's just hot air," AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka told Reuters. "Donald Trump is nothing but a house of cards, and once we educate people, the house of cards comes crashing down," he said.
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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-unions-exclusive-idUSMTZSAPEC3BVV3QJO
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(24,692 posts)"I like right to work. My position on right to work is 100 percent," Trump said in a radio interview in South Carolina last month.
The text campaign on which the ads will be modeled featured a quote from Trumka, hitting Trump on right-to-work, and characterizing him as racist: "Donald Trump's bigoted comments are bad enough. Now, he supports right to work. Tell him right to work is wrong for working people."
There are some signs Trump's message is resonating beyond the 20 to 30 percent of rank-and-file union members that vote Republican, attracting political independents and even some frustrated Democrats.
"But I think when all is said and done, when unions put their programs into gear, in person and one-on-one in homes and in their communities, union members will vote overwhelmingly for the Democratic nominee," Rosenthal said. "Trump might have some appeal right now, but once you start to peel away his record - his manufacturing in China, his relationships with unions - he's a pretty good target."