Weeks after President Donald Trump posted a series of vulgar deepfake videos of Chuck Schumer, in the run-up to the ongoing government shutdown, Senate Republicans have released their own AI-generated ad featuring the top Democrat.
While the social media clip has sparked backlash from journalists and political observers, a spokesperson for the National Republican Senate Committee came out in defense of the ad, insisting that “AI is here and not going anywhere” – and critics should cease their pearl-clutching.
With the federal shutdown now deep inside its third week with no end in sight, the Republican committee released the political ad Friday that took aim at Schumer for boasting about Democrats’ refusal to budge.
During a conversation with Punchbowl News last week, the New York lawmaker suggested that his party was gaining political momentum amid the standoff, which centers on Senate Democrats rejecting a “clean” short-term spending resolution, unless Affordable Care Act tax credits are extended.
“Every day gets better for us,” Schumer told the outlet. “It’s because we’ve thought about this long in advance and we knew that health care would be the focal point on Sept. 30 and we prepared for it … Their whole theory was — threaten us, bamboozle us, and we would submit in a day or two.”
That quote was immediately seized upon by Republicans, who called it “disgusting and revealing” and a “vile sentiment” from the Senate minority leader.
“This isn’t a political game. Democrats might feel that way, but I don’t know of anybody else that does,” Senate majority Leader John Thune fumed last week. “The longer this goes on, the more the American people realize that Democrats own this shutdown.”
The Senate Republicans’ latest ad revolves around Schumer’s quote. However, since his comments were given to a print outlet, the committee had to create an AI-version of Schumer saying those words. While the clip shows an artificially animated Schumer speaking and smiling, a small disclaimer in the bottom corner notes that the video was AI-generated.
The rest of the ad features conservative journalists and Republicans blasting the “Schumer Shutdown,” claiming the “pain is going to increase on the American people” because “they want free government-provided healthcare for illegal aliens.”
PolitiFact, however, has deemed that claim as false, noting that the Democrats’ “proposal would not grant federally supported health care benefits to people in the U.S. illegally” because they don’t have that access in the first place.
The AI-generated ad immediately prompted outcry from political reporters, who called it an “eyebrow-raising move” by the Senate GOP that is “likely to deceive people” and represented a “slippery slope” ahead of next year’s midterm elections.
“This is not a real video. There is instead a small ‘AI Generated’ disclaimer in the corner,” New York Times reporter Shane Goldmacher remarked. “It is a real quote to @PunchbowlNews. But it wasn’t said on camera like this. New boundaries being pushed here.”
In the wake of criticism over the ad, the Republican committee’s communications director, Joanna Rodriguez, doubled down Friday afternoon and suggested that the GOP would be utilizing more AI-animated content down the road.
“AI is here and not going anywhere. Adapt & win or pearl clutch & lose,” she posted on X.
“Senate Democrats voted 10 times to keep the government closed. The impacts are as real as Schumer’s quote to Punchbowl News,” Rodriguez added. “Missed pay. Staff shortages. Benefits at risk. It’s all ‘better’ for Chuck.”
In a series of AI-generated videos shared by Trump at the beginning of the shutdown, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries was depicted in a sombrero and sporting a handlebar mustache while mariachi music played in the background.
On top of that, Schumer delivered a fabricated rant where he said “have no voters anymore, because of our woke, trans bulls**t” and that “if we give all these illegal aliens health care, we might be able to get them on our side so they can vote for us.”
When confronted over the offensive videos, which Jeffries and other Democrats described as “vulgar and racist,” Vice President JD Vance insisted there was nothing bigoted about the posts and that it was all in good fun.
“Oh, I think it’s funny, the president is joking and we’re having a good time,” Vance said at the time.
