A group of senate republicans, known as The National Republican Senatorial Committee, led by two of the party’s senators, are running campaign ads attacking current senate incumbent Jon Tester(D-Montana) for accepting “dirty [campaign] money,” from Pearl Jam. This group’s main point of contention in the ad was a poster used by the band during fundraiser for Tester, which displayed an eagle eating off the bones of U.S. president and former reality TV star Donald Trump in front of a burning white house.
“A vote for Tester is a vote to put liberal Democrats in control, where they’ll work to impeach President Trump,” the ad said, according to Pitchfork. “But for the radical far-left, impeachment isn’t enough. Celebrities have talked about killing the president or blowing up the White House. Now, a rock band comes to Montana, throws a concert to support Tester – and promotes it using a vulgar, despicable poster featuring President Trump’s dead corpse on the White House lawn. Yet, Tester himself remained silent for days. Even worse? Tester’s campaign used the concert to raise campaign cash, charging up to $500 for VIP tickets. How much dirty money did Tester raise? And if he won’t he do the right thing and give it back, doesn’t that tell us all we need to know about the real Jon Tester?”
In response, Tester’s spokesperson Chris Meagher stated, “We never saw the poster before the show and we don’t like it. And we don’t condone violence of any kind.”
The National Republican Senatorial Committee is a group that is “devoted to strengthening the Republican Senate Majority and electing Republicans to the United States Senate.” Currently republicans control both branches of congress, in addition to the executive branch.
Jeff Ament, the band’s bassist who co-designed the poster then released a statement regarding its artwork. “The role of the artist is to make people think and feel, and the current administration has us thinking and feeling. I was the sole conceptualist of this poster, and I welcome all interpretations and discourse,” Ament explained ending the statement with,”Love, from the First Amendment, Jeff Ament.”
This same republican committee has been comparing the incident to Kathy Griffin holding fake head of a decapitated Trump on social media. These incidents have been called divisive and hypocritical on both sides: with some calling out an incident where Ted Nugent stated he wanted to kill then democratic presidential candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton in 2007.
Despite this incident Pearl Jam are currently touring, making a stop at numerous venues across Europe and the United States. During a performance to combat the homeless crisis in Seattle, Washington this month the band was able to raise more than $12 million.
In another advocacy effort for the city, the band announced that they will be teaming up with Death Cab for Cutie vocalist Ben Gibbard to prevent the demolition of The Showbox music venue. The advocacy group is currently working on getting the venue designated as a historic landmark to prevent its demolition.
Photo Credit: Alyssa Fried
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