Exclusive | Dem Sen. Bob Casey still airing disrespectful ad featuring Jamal Khashoggi despite widows pleas
Democratic Sen.Bob Casey’s re-election campaign is still running ads featuring Jamal Khashoggi, the Washington Post columnist who was brutally tortured and murdered inside a Saudi consulate in 2018 — despite desperate pleas from his widow to take them down.The TV ad was still airing on networks in Philadelphia, Harrisburg and Scranton as of Thursday, upsetting Hanan Elatr Khashoggi, who demanded last Friday that it be “pulled down immediately.”Hanan Elatr Khashoggi has now penned an anguished appeal, blasting the Pennsylvania progressive as “disrespectful.” “This makes me very upset and it is disrespectful,” she wrote in an email obtained by The Post to an aide in Casey’s Senate office on Thursday morning.
“I don’t think it would be right to work with Senator Casey if he is still running that commercial,” she continued.“Last Friday, I was very clear on our phone call that I would like that commercial pulled down immediately.Until it is taken off the air I don’t think it is appropriate that we speak about my case.”But in an unsatisfying response to her plea, the senator’s office took no responsibility and told the distressed widow that no “member of our official staff, represent the campaign or make campaign decisions.”The Casey campaign’s scathing spot titled, “Can’t Trust Him” had portrayed his foe, Pennsylvania Republican Senate hopeful David McCormick as being cozy with Saudi Arabia.It began with imagery of the Saudi consulate in Istanbul where Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi reporter and dissident, was brutally slaughtered in 2018.
Numerous investigations, including from the CIA, have linked the vicious murder to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s inner circle.Jamal Khashoggi had been a fierce critic of bin Salman, who has strenuously denied personal involvement.
From there, the ad pointed to a Wall Street Journal report about how McCormick — then co-CEO of Bridgewater Associates, the world’s largest hedge fund —�...