Democratic Sen. Bob Casey’s re-election campaign is still running ads featuring Jamal Khashoggi, the Washington Post columnist who was brutally tortured and murdered inside a Saudi consulate in 2018 — despite desperate pleas from his widow to take them down.
The TV ad was still airing on networks in Philadelphia, Harrisburg and Scranton as of Thursday, upsetting Hanan Elatr Khashoggi, who demanded last Friday that it be “pulled down immediately.”
Hanan Elatr Khashoggi has now penned an anguished appeal, blasting the Pennsylvania progressive as “disrespectful.”
“This makes me very upset and it is disrespectful,” she wrote in an email obtained by The Post to an aide in Casey’s Senate office on Thursday morning.
“I don’t think it would be right to work with Senator Casey if he is still running that commercial,” she continued.
“Last Friday, I was very clear on our phone call that I would like that commercial pulled down immediately. Until it is taken off the air I don’t think it is appropriate that we speak about my case.”
But in an unsatisfying response to her plea, the senator’s office took no responsibility and told the distressed widow that no “member of our official staff, represent the campaign or make campaign decisions.”
The Casey campaign’s scathing spot titled, “Can’t Trust Him” had portrayed his foe, Pennsylvania Republican Senate hopeful David McCormick as being cozy with Saudi Arabia.
It began with imagery of the Saudi consulate in Istanbul where Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi reporter and dissident, was brutally slaughtered in 2018.
Numerous investigations, including from the CIA, have linked the vicious murder to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s inner circle.
Jamal Khashoggi had been a fierce critic of bin Salman, who has strenuously denied personal involvement.
From there, the ad pointed to a Wall Street Journal report about how McCormick — then co-CEO of Bridgewater Associates, the world’s largest hedge fund — “argued for Bridgewater to maintain its Saudi ties” in the wake of the attack.
Hanan Elatr Khashoggi had been adamant that she did not want her heartbreak “to be used as a political tool by any campaign or politician.”
She also dinged the Casey campaign for erroneously characterizing her late husband as an American, despite him being a Saudi citizen.
Casey’s Senate office had been helping Hanan Elatr Khashoggi with her bid to obtain a settlement from the Saudi government after her husband’s gruesome torture and dismemberment six years ago.
Ultimately, she was granted asylum in Virginia with the help of Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) and Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.)
Randa Fahmy, Hanan Elatr Khashoggi’s lawyer, said that Casey’s office had promised to “cycle out” the ad this week but the ad is still airing and the campaign hasn’t provided an update on its removal.
“Hanan made it very clear that it was a painful ad and she wanted it taken down,” Fahmy recalled of their discussions with the senator’s congressional and campaign aides last Friday.
“She was crying on the phone call. She was very very upset. She said she didn’t want her husband’s tragedy to be used in any political race,” Fahmy added.
“She doesn’t want any candidate using her husband as a political tool.”
Fahmy described herself as a “good friend” of McCormick in a past LinkedIn post.
“There is no dispute that David McCormick demanded his hedge fund show support and loyalty to Mr. Khashoggi’s murderers, all to protect his own business interests, as the Wall Street Journal reported,” said Casey campaign spokeswoman Maddy McDaniel.
“We have the utmost sympathy for what Mrs. Khashoggi has experienced. The ad will be cycled out this week, as was previously planned,” McDaniel insisted.
Fahmy told The Post she wrote to at least 20 TV stations in Pennsylvania this week to ask that the ad be taken off the air for inaccurately describing Khashoggi as a US citizen, but none had taken action.
“This is not the behavior we expect of Bobby Casey,” she told The Post. “I can’t imagine why it is they would want to disrespect the wishes of Jamal Khashoggi’s widow.”
The lawyer and her client had first asked for it to be taken down last Tuesday and spoke with the Casey aides on Friday when she voiced her concerns that the ad was a “painful reminder” of her husband’s death, the anniversary of which falls on Oct. 2.
Pennsylvania’s Senate race is being closely watched. Casey is averaging a 4.5-point lead over McCormick, according to the latest RealClearPolitics aggregate of polls.
The Cook Political Report’s election hamstringer currently rates the race as lean Democratic.
