philadelphia. republicans paid a talent agency to hire them for the ad and the casting call obtained by cnn asks for a hicky blue collar look. these charact earls from west virginia so think coal min miner/trucker looks. they asked for a trucker hat. it says preferably beat up. flannel shirt. check. dickey s type jacket a spokesman for the national republican senatorial committee said they didn t know about the language and pulled the ad. the irony is republicans didn t have to use actors in philadelphia to capture concerns about manchin. we went to this real west virginia diner this week and heard the sentiment unscripted. i can see generally pretty happy here in the state. had some people voting for senator, i would be more voting for someone who s just going to straight up proposal on the agenda. reporter: no hat, no flannel. in fact, the real foul play with
philadelphia. there was a casting call, as the oregon diner in south philly and on that call sheet for actors they said, quote, going for a hicky, blue-collar look. these characters are from west virginia, so think coal miner/trucker looks. there was more. jonathan martin is senior political reporter for politico. well, jonathan, this could not have backfired worse for republicans. right. yeah. this was produced by jamestown associates. right. it s a republican strategy for them. they claim, the republicans claim that they subcontracted this when they did this acting call sheet, so the actual production. but you know, how did this mess up, the ad we should point out has now been pulled down? right. you probably could not think of a worse state, andrea, for this controversy to happen in. a state that obviously is very sensitive to its image, and governor manchin has jumped on this today. and you know, trying to make political hey out of this for all the obvious reasons.