Missouri governor launches ad campaign as state House set to consider his fate

The TV spot takes a page out of President Donald Trump's crisis playbook, suggesting Greitens' scandals stem from plots against him by the media and his political enemies.

A male narrator in the ad in turn accuses "the fake news," Democratic donor George Soros and Democratic Party leaders of plotting the allegations against Greitens, a Republican.

"Don't let the liberals get away with it," the narrator adds.

The ad is set to air beginning Wednesday in Kansas City, St. Louis and Joplin. It will run through the beginning of June, around the time the Missouri House is expected to vote on whether to impeach the governor.

A roster of Missouri Republicans have already called on Greitens to resign, including leaders of the state House and Senate and Attorney General Josh Hawley, the likely challenger to Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill.

But Greitens has insisted he will not step down, instead launching an aggressive lobbying effort to keep his job. Those efforts have recently come under FBI scrutiny, with two state lawmakers telling CNN that federal agents questioned them about possible threats and bribes by the governor's associates regarding an impeachment vote.

As Greitens fights for his political life, he also faces a legal battle, including one felony charge of computer tampering for his campaign's use of a nonprofit donor list. Prosecutors recently withdrew a felony invasion of privacy charge stemming from an explicit photo Greitens allegedly took of a woman with whom he had an affair, but a recently named special prosecutor will decide whether to refile it.

Greitens has admitted to the affair but denied any wrongdoing, dismissing the investigations into his conduct as a "political witch hunt."