Competing television advertisements have hit Yellowhammer State airwaves that present dueling portrayals of U.S. Senate hopeful Mike Durant’s position on the Second Amendment.
Last week, the anti-Durant Alabama RINO PAC released a 30-second spot taking aim at the candidate over his past comments regarding the military’s relationship with an armed citizenry.
“Why are liberals supporting Mike Durant? On the Second Amendment, he sounds like them,” says the ad narrator before featuring a snippet from a 2011 speech Durant gave to the U.S. Army War College.
“[T]he first thing that needs to be done is disarm the population,” the ad displays Durant saying. “Let’s face it, if we could do that in some of our U.S. cities, that would be a pretty good step toward law and order.”
“Government taking our guns? Mike Durant — dangerously wrong on guns, wrong choice for Alabama,” concludes the ad narrator.
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While Durant’s opponents have contended that his comments display his lack of support for the Second Amendment, the U.S. Army veteran maintains that his words were taken out of context given that he was speaking in part to his service in the Somali Civil War.
In response to the super PAC’s attack ad, the Durant campaign released a 30-second spot of its own touting the candidate’s support of the Second Amendment.
The ad begins with a voice-over saying, “The career politicians will say anything to stop Black Hawk pilot and pro-Trump outsider Mike Durant,” after which Durant says, “I’ve seen worse.”
The voice-over adds, “Mike Durant served in the 160th SOAR [Special Operations Aviation Regiment], the Night Stalkers. He’ll fight liberal gun-grabbers and defend your right to bear arms, always.”
Durant concludes, “They can lie all they want. Here’s the truth: For too long, career politicians have abandoned their principles, turned their backs on conservatives and sold us short. I won’t, because Night Stalkers don’t quit.”
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Dylan Smith is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @DylanSmithAL
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