Earlier today, President Donald Trump and the Republican leadership suffered a major setback in their efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, when Speaker Paul Ryan pulled his bill to repeal Obamacare from the House floor after support for his efforts began to collapse. But that news apparently broke a little too late for conservative advertisers in certain red-leaning markets, where ads thanking Republican representatives for repealing the ACA ran during tonight’s basketball broadcasts.
That’s per Deadspin, which has footage of a number of ads running in Republican districts, thanking lawmakers—including California’s David Valadao, Iowa’s David Young, and Texas’ Will Hurd—for “replacing the Affordable Care Act.” Ironically, several of the representatives being thanked—including Virginia Representative Barbara Comstock, whose ad is viewable above, had publicly pulled support for Ryan’s bill earlier today. It’s not entirely clear whether the group funding the ads, the American Action Network, was trying to make some sort of subtle point by keeping the ”Thank yous” sarcastically on the books, or if they were just too surprised by the congressional defeat to pull their pre-paid ad buys in time.
[Note: Deadspin, like The A.V. Club, is owned by Univision Communications.]