Unprecedented 10 separate independent fact-checks call out Team Gideon’s false ads

Tidal wave of disinformation going to Maine voters from Gideon and Co.

And no sign of changing course from Gideon

Alert: Gideon campaign just went up with a TV spot on fact-checks that contains false info!

Maine has never seen a political candidate that’s been called out so many times by independent fact-checkers for distorting the truth, making misleading claims, and downright lying...

Until Sara Gideon. 

Gideon and her dark money allies have been fact-checked for their false ads at an astonishing rate, beginning in August 2019 when the Washington Post’s non-partisan fact-checker gave one of Gideon’s allies’ ads “three Pinocchios,” calling it MOSTLY FALSE. 

Yet - even after being called out for distorting the truth so many times - Sara Gideon doesn’t show any sign of stopping.

In fact, Gideon is still using the same false claims that have already gotten her campaign in trouble!  And, she just launched a new television ad about fact-checks that also contains a false statement!  Politifact has NOT called a Susan Collins ad either “misleading,” “distorted,” or “largely out of context.”

Remember: the ads, paid for by Team Gideon and her dark money allies, that are being fact-checked represent millions of dollars of campaign spending… and it’s all meant to distort Senator Collins’ record and lie to Maine voters.

Moments ago, the Bangor Daily News came out with yet another fact-check declaring a Team Gideon ad false (that’s two BDN fact-checks of misleading Team Gideon ads today, by the way). The BDN piece calls a new ad attacking Senator Collins on postal issues “misleading” - Gideon and her allies are blaming the Postal Service’s financial woes on a bill Collins passed to fix health benefits for postal workers. However, because the Postal Service hasn’t paid any additional money to satisfy the requirements of Collins’s bill in nearly a decade, it’s absurd to claim that Collins’s bill is hurting the Postal Service’s finances.

If Sara Gideon is this willing to benefit from lies as a candidate, imagine what she’d do to advance her personal agenda as a United States Senator.

Here’s the list of 10 fact-checks referenced above:

1. 8/19/20 Bangor Daily News: Ad Watch: A Susan Collins bill doesn’t fully explain the postal service’s problems

2. 8/19/20 Bangor Daily News: Ad Watch: Sara Gideon cherry-picks Susan Collins’ record on prescription drug legislation

3. 8/17/20 Portland Press Herald: Super PAC ad attacking Sen. Susan Collins distorts some facts

4. 8/16/20 Bangor Daily News: Ad Watch: Susan Collins actually voted to cut most Mainers’ taxes — for now

5. 7/29/20 WMTW: Republican-led group produces attack ad against Sen. Susan Collins for supporting Trump

6. 7/13/20 PolitiFact: Fact-checking an attack on Sen. Susan Collins over opioids, campaign donations

7. 7/10/20 NewsCenter Maine: Ad fact check: Sen. Collins depicted as engaging in 'quid pro quo' with big pharma in latest Gideon ad

8. 7/9/20 FactCheck.org: Cherry-picking Collins’s prescription drug votes

9. 6/15/20 Washington Post: Democratic ad misleadingly attacks Susan Collins on the Paycheck Protection Program

10. 8/19/19 Washington Post: Dark money ad claims Susan Collins puts old age programs in jeopardy