A wealthy woman purchased $500,000 in advertising time in early-voting primary states to attack former Vice President Joe Biden over a business dispute she says hurt her son’s business, CBS News reports.
Shirley Shawe’s ad focuses on a Delaware corporate mediation system -- the Chancery Court -- which she says embroiled her son in a costly years-long litigation process, and depicts Biden as defending the system.
The ad uses a clip of then-Senator Biden argue with then-Harvard Professor Elizabeth Warren.
“During the 2005 hearing, Biden and Warren argued over the openness and accountability of the bankruptcy courts, which are separate from the Chancery Court, as Warren pointed out to Biden, according to the transcript,” CBS News reported. “But in the ad, the soundbite from the exchange on bankruptcy courts is spliced into criticism of Delaware's Chancery Court, making it seem as though Biden was defending its openness as Warren disputed it.”
The ad is set to air in Iowa, New Hampshire, and Delaware.
"As a citizen, I'm free to use my voice, and I will not agree to remove stop my campaign, until the issue of Chancery Court corruption is addressed,” Shawe said in a statement to CBS.
Biden calls for ad to be taken down:
"The ad misrepresents Vice President Biden's position in this exchange from 2005 by manipulating footage to suggest he means one court when he means another," Biden campaign press secretary Jamal Brown said in a statement to CBS News. "It's a clear reminder of the way that third-party money poisons our politics with false attack ads, and it has no place in this race."
Warren calls for ad to be taken down too:
"Elizabeth does not believe individual donors should have an outsized influence in this primary, and has consistently said that Super PACs or individuals with the means to finance ad campaigns on their own should stay out of the primary," Warren spokesman Chris Hayden told the network.
