Anti-Trump Republicans target former president over Jan. 6

An anti-Trump PAC gave a dire warning to 2024 voters with an ad campaign Monday, saying the former president is likely to encourage a second Jan. 6-like riot.

The ad from the Republican Accountability PAC is titled “Trump Will Do This Again” and features footage of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, with audio of the former president’s Ellipse speech made directly before the riots played over it.

“Trump told them to fight,” the ad reads. “Trump did this. He’ll do it again. He can never be president again.”

The ad also features Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) denouncing the violence of the Jan. 6 riot in the days after it occurred.

Many Republican lawmakers have walked back their post-Jan. 6 criticisms of Trump and the violence of the riots. Cruz apologized after the first anniversary of the attacks after he dubbed the Jan. 6 Capitol riots a “terrorist attack.”

The six-figure ad campaign will run on Fox News on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, including during the network’s town hall events with GOP presidential candidates, the PAC said.

“We can’t let voters forget about Donald Trump’s central role in the violence of January 6,” Republican Accountability political director Gunner Ramer said in a statement. “He continues to deny responsibility and pushes conspiracy theories about what took place. We must remind voters of his contempt for the fundamental tenets of American democracy.”

The PAC said its goal with the campaign is to mobilize anti-Trump GOP voters. 

“By calling attention to Trump’s actions that day, and by tapping national Republicans who criticized him for it, the campaign is aimed at persuadable Republicans who may be swayed by Trump’s role in the attack,” the group said in a statement.