politico.com
Lummis blocks resolution denouncing Trump's 'public service announcements'
A Republican senator blocked a resolution Tuesday that would have denounced President Donald Trump's recent campaign-style ads funded with taxpayer dollars. Sen. Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming objected to Sen. Maggie Hassan’s nonbinding resolution, which said it was the sense of the Senate that the ads "should not be paid for by the United States government." Because Hassan (D-N.H.) was trying to pass the resolution without a formal vote, any one senator could block it. “It just tells the president that he is wrong — that these ads need to be pulled down and that they should not be paid for with taxpayer dollars,” Hassan said on the floor. Lummis however countered that Hassan’s concerns about the ads say “more about her side of the aisle” and compared Trump’s ads to President Bill Clinton’s antidrug campaign, among others. One of the ads Trump is running at taxpayer expense is virtually identical to a 2024 campaign ad. "When a Democratic president tells Americans what to do, it's a public service,” Lummis said. “When this president tells Americans that liberty is worth defending, it's a problem."
