There are no safe spaces left, not even when you’re sitting in your recliner in your man cave with a cold beer and a bowl of chips.
This, according to a new attack ad against Hillary Clinton from Rebuilding America Now, a PAC supporting Donald Trump based in Alexandria, Va.
The ad targets Clinton’s view that the Washington Football Team ought to change its name. In 2014, she told Fusion’s Jorge Ramos that, “I think it’s insensitive and I think that there’s no reason for it to continue as the name of a team in our nation’s capital.”
Trump, on the other hand, said in a radio interview a year ago that “Indians that are extremely proud of that name. They think it’s a positive.”
The ad pictures four coiffed dudes hanging out in the most teal man cave I’ve ever seen, three of them sporting Macklemore hair cuts and the fourth, who is left out of the bro-tastic hugs and celebrations, with a more Kenny G-esque style.
“You thought you were safe sitting in your recliner in your man cave—cold beer and a bowl of chips,” the voice over says with a laugh. “You thought you’d escape politics by focusing on football. Wrong! Hillary Clinton wants to mess up your football, too.”
After playing the tape of the Ramos interview, the ad concludes that “Hillary’s priorities are not your priorities.”
Whether that final statement is true depends on who “you” are. According to a poll from Washington City Paper last winter, 58 percent of people in D.C. consider the name offensive, while 35 percent do not. A Washington Post poll found 90 percent of Native Americans didn’t have a problem with the name, though activists question its methodology.
The name, which advocates point out is a dictionary-defined slur, has been the target of a prolonged campaign to change it. Clinton is not alone in her opposition to the moniker—the D.C. Council passed a resolution asking the team to change its name in 2013, President Barack Obama said if he were the owner he’d “think about changing it,” among others (including DCist).
Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewel has made it clear that she wouldn’t allow the team to return to RFK, which sits on federally owned land, while the name remains in place.
Then again, actor Matthew McConaughey said the name was alright alright, and team owner Dan Snyder has said he will never change it. “NEVER — you can use caps,” he said.
The fight has since gone to the courts. The team is appealing a federal judge’s decision to uphold their trademark cancellation.
This isn’t the first time that the team has been a part of this election. A theory that has accurately predicted 17 of the last 19 elections posits that if the team wins its final home game before the election the incumbent party stays in the White House.
That would mean a Clinton victory, thanks to a home defeat of the Philadelphia Eagles on October 16. The team had a bye week this week, and did not play yesterday.
Former team coach Mike Shanahan has been campaigning for Trump in Colorado as recently as this weekend.
As for team owner Snyder, he supported Jeb Bush in the primaries. His wife donated $534.86 directly to the Trump campaign in September 2015, as first reported by Washington City Paper.
The Snyders do not appear to have donated to Rebuilding America Now, according to an individual donors list. As of October 19, 2016, Rebuilding America Now spent more than $19 million on the 2016 cycle, per Open Secrets. Of that, nearly $15 million was towards expenses against Clinton and nearly $4 million towards Trump.
Both of the campaigns have made a last-minute push in Virginia, where Clinton has a six-point lead.
Updated: This post originally stated that the team’s game against the Bengals in London on October 30 was considered a home game, but it was an away game.
Rachel Kurzius