The National Republican Senatorial Committee crossed into dystopian new territory for political campaigning on Friday after releasing an attack ad that features an artificially generated video of the Senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer.
The deepfake video, posted on Friday to the Senate Republicans’ social media account, shows an AI-generated Schumer robotically repeating the phrase “every day gets better for us” in reference to the ongoing government shutdown. A small disclaimer tucked in the corner acknowledges its artificial origins.
“Week 3 of the Schumer Shutdown: ‘Every day gets better for us,’” the post read, accompanied by the deepfake video looping the Democratic leader’s manufactured likeness.
The video has bewildered those who watched it online, given that the quote itself is real and on the record for Punchbowl News. In the original interview, Schumer explained that Democrats had prepared their healthcare-focused shutdown strategy well in advance, adding: “Their whole theory was – threaten us, bamboozle us and we would submit in a day or two.”
Yet rather than simply quote Schumer’s words, the NRSC, the campaign arm responsible for electing Republican senators and chaired by Tim Scott, a South Carolina senator, chose to manufacture synthetic video of him speaking.
“Schumer thinks playing with Americans’ livelihoods is just a game,” the narrator says over the deepfake imagery. The advertisement goes on to feature other discussion on the shutdown, accusing Democrats of “loving” the political standoff.
In a response on X, Joanna Rodriguez, the NRSC communications director, said: “AI is here and not going anywhere. Adapt & win or pearl clutch & lose.”
Schumer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The video comes weeks after Donald Trump posted his own AI-generated deepfake to Truth Social, depicting Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries, the House minority leader, making crude and made-up statements about immigration and voter fraud that neither lawmaker uttered. In 2023, shortly after Joe Biden announced his re-election bid, the Republican National Committee responded with an AI-generated attack ad that imagined an apocalyptic version of the future should Biden win a second term. The video included, in faint text, the disclaimer: “Built entirely with AI imagery.”
