ACLU, FreedomWorks Fox & Friends Ad Buy Targets Trump on FISA Reform

This embed will serve content from youtube.com.​​​​

WASHINGTON — The American Civil Liberties Union and FreedomWorks launched today a multi-state TV ad buy calling on President Trump to support broader surveillance reform as Congress considers expiring government spying powers. The ad will air on Fox News, including Fox & Friends, through Friday in the District of Columbia and multiple states including Kentucky. The ad is part of a six-figure, multi-state TV and digital ad campaign calling for broader surveillance reform.

“President Trump has repeatedly claimed that the FBI illegally spied on his campaign,” said ACLU Deputy Political Director Christopher Anders. “If President Trump wants to do right by Carter Page and all Americans, he should demand truly meaningful reforms to our surveillance laws, and dismiss any proposals for small ‘fixes’ or clean reauthorizations that Chairman Adam Schiff or Attorney General Bill Barr may be trying to pressure the president and Congress into accepting. America will be watching.”

Congress has until March 15, 2020, to decide the future of some of the government’s spying powers. The ACLU and FreedomWorks have repeatedly stated that Congress must use this opportunity to enact broader surveillance reforms. These reforms include requiring additional notice and disclosure for individuals targeted or prosecuted using information obtained from FISA surveillance, limiting the types of records that can be obtained by the government under the Patriot Act, and reforming the FISA court process to enhance accountability, oversight, and transparency.

The Fox & Friends ad joins a number of digital ads the ACLU and FreedomWorks launched last week calling on various members of Congress, including Rep. Doug Collins and Rep. Jerry Nadler, to oppose reauthorization of the USA Patriot Act without meaningful reforms. The digital ads are running in Georgia, California, North Carolina, New York, and Washington through March 6th.

“We hope that we can reach President Trump with the message that there is massive bi-partisan agreement with him that the government’s surveillance authorities urgently need serious reform,” said Josh Withrow, senior policy analyst at FreedomWorks. “Just as the process that enabled the spying on his campaign was broken, so too is a system that allows the communications and data of millions of Americans to be intercepted by the government without a warrant.”

The ad buy is part of a larger advocacy effort that engages the ACLU’s millions of members and supporters in actions that include phone banks and emails to members of Congress.

The ad is here: https://youtu.be/qqJvB-HJvp4.