Hillary Clinton's campaign suspended its advertising on the Weather Channel in Florida on Thursday after Republicans accused her of exploiting fears of deadly Hurricane Matthew.
"Since the storm has clearly become very serious, we have asked the Weather Channel to roll back that buy until the storm is concluded," Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook told reporters in a conference call.
"We don't think that the voters in Florida need this election to get mixed up in their efforts to get information on this storm."
The Weather Channel's ratings spike dramatically when severe storms strike. Nearly 2 million residents of Florida, Georgia and other states on the Atlantic were urged to flee their homes Friday as Matthew, a Category 4 hurricane, spun toward the coast.
The Clinton campaign said its ad buy in Florida was less than 1 percent of what it was purchasing nationally this week on hundreds of different media outlets in battleground states.
"Pulling these ads after getting caught won't cut it," Reince Priebus, chairman of the Republican National Committee, wrote on Twitter. He demanded an apology.
Mook said it was unfortunate that Priebus was "trying to politicize the hurricane."
Steven Cheung, a spokesman for Donald Trump's campaign, called the Clinton ad plan "appalling."
