The Political Insider

Yes, this really is a dumpster fire.

U.S. Senate Candidate Richard Painter, who is running as a Democrat in Minnesota, put this ad out yesterday that is perhaps the more bizarre, badly written, and uncomfortable ad in American history.

Painter is running to fill the seat vacated by disgraced former-Senator Al Franken. (RELATED: Senator Al Franken Won’t Say When He’ll Resign from Office).

Watch (below) as Painter, who worked as President George W. Bush’s chief ethics lawyer before leaving the Republican Party, stands in front of a dumpster on fire.

Painter, who speaks out the side of his mouth and in a deadpan voice, looks like he’s in pain as he reads from a teleprompter.

What is his message? Apparently, he’s trying to extinguish the “dumpster” fire in Washington D.C. That’s a hard metaphor to comprehend as swamps don’t typically catch on fire.

In the ad, Richard Painter, who spent two years as President George W. Bush’s chief ethics lawyer before switching parties, stands before an actual fire in a dumpster. Painter, deadpan and speaking out of the side of his mouth (for some reason) as he grimaces through the painful script, says he’s running for office to extinguish the “dumpster” fire raging in Washington, D.C. (Forget that fires don’t often rage in swamps, Painter’s off with his metaphor.)

Painter grumbles, “Some people see a dumpster fire and do nothing but watch the spectacle. Some are too scared to face the danger, or they think it will benefit them if they just let it keep burning.”

Painter continues, “Others shrug and say, ‘All this talk about dumpster fires, it’s just fake news!”

And here comes the clumsy finish: “There is an inferno raging in Washington. But here in the land of 10,000 lakes (points to burning metaphor as water is poured on the dumpster), we know how to put out a fire.”

You have to see this ad. It’s beyond weird:

The reactions on social media weren’t quite what Painter and his campaign were hoping for:

The consensus is, Painter’s ad is a dumpster fire.

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