Hillary Clinton's campaign announced it was delaying an ad buy on The Weather Channel during Hurricane Matthew after being pummeled with criticism.
Politico reported on Wednesday that the campaign had planned to spend $63,000 in ads for five days in several major Florida media markets and they were scheduled to start on Thursday. That would have marked the peak of Hurricane Matthew coverage, noted Politico.
The Clinton campaign initially attempted to defend the ad buy.
"Over the past few days, our campaign made millions of dollars of adjustments and refinements to our TV buys on dozens of different cable stations in markets all across the battleground states," Clinton campaign spokesman Jesse Ferguson told Politico. "The Weather Channel represented less than one percent of that spending. These shifts were part of our regular updates to maximize efficiency, effectiveness and reach of our ad buy."
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush issued a Twitter message calling for the presidential candidates to be "sensitive" during the storm.
Kristy Campbell, a former spokeswoman for Bush, was more direct, calling Clinton's ad buy a big mistake, said CNN.
"This is a colossally huge and unforced error by the Clinton camp. Insensitive and will p*** off Floridians," Campbell said on Twitter.
A spokesman for Donald Trump tweeted that Clinton's ad buy was "tone-deaf" and "shameless."
The Clinton campaign relented Thursday and Ferguson said the campaign had asked for the ads to be delayed, noted CNN.
"Earlier in the week, we made changes to our TV ad reservations across hundreds of stations in several battleground states including Florida," Ferguson told CNN. "Less than one percent of those changes included The Weather Channel. We have requested that stations in Florida delay any of those ads on the Weather Channel until after the storm passes."
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