A group of Republicans opposed to a second Donald Trump term has released a new ad skewering the president for his explanation of a slow walk down a ramp after a commencement speech at West Point earlier this month.
The Lincoln Project – led by former John McCain adviser Steve Schmidt, George Conway (husband of White House counsellor Kellyanne Conway) and others – walked through Mr Trump's defence delivered during a campaign rally Saturday night in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The group used graphics and arrows to mock the commander chief, whom they claim has physical limitations or is unwell.
"I said, general, there's no way I can make it down that ramp without falling on my ass, general. I have no railing. It's true," he said, referring to Army Lt Gen Darryl Williams, the US Military Academy's superintendent. "So, I said, 'Is there, like, something else around?'"
There was not apparently another way off the stage that Saturday afternoon (14 June) in rural New York state.
"'Sir, the ramp is ready to go. Grab me, sir, grab me,'" Trump said, quoting the general. "I didn't really want to grab him."
The Lincoln Project highlighted the body part on which the president said he feared falling with a yellow circle.
It also included another graphic mocking Mr Trump over the "Access Hollywood" tape on which he said he once would grab women by their genitalia. Aides feared in 2016 the tape would cost him the election, but he wound up defeating former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton fairly easily in the Electoral College.
The ad goes on to mock Mr Trump over that West Point ramp, which he described as "really steep really, really, really" and "an ice skating rink."
"It's brutal," the president said of the structure, which he previously said was wet from rain even though it did not precipitate that day at West Point.
The Lincoln Group, using a yellow graphic, estimated the slope to be about a 3-degree decline.
The ad ends by showing then-vice president Joe Biden in 2016 ascending the same ramp during that year's Military Academy commencement event. "He's not a whiny bitch," the group declares in a graphic as the ad ends.
