Donald Trump Jr. lashed out at CNN early this morning for refusing to run the latest ad fear-mongering ad developed by his father’s campaign committee designed to hype up the anxiety levels among white voters by demonizing the desperate “caravan” of refugees walking to the US from a thousand miles away.
CNN refused to run this ad… I guess they only run fake news and won’t talk about real threats that don’t suit their agenda. Enjoy. Remember this on Tuesday. #vote #voterepublican pic.twitter.com/VyMm7GhPLX
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) November 3, 2018
The ad — which posits the ludicrous proposition that only by voting for Republican candidates can America prevent this supposed hoard of families fleeing violence in their Central American home countries that was at least partially the responsibility of flawed U.S. foreign policy over decades — was rejected by CNN because of its overt racism, a fact that CNN reiterated in its blistering response to the president’s eldest and most jingoistic son.
CNN has made it abundantly clear in its editorial coverage that this ad is racist. When presented with an opportunity to be paid to take a version of this ad, we declined. Those are the facts. 🍎
— CNN Communications (@CNNPR) November 3, 2018
While most TV networks are loath to turn away advertising dollars in a competitive ad market — advertising is, after all, how they stay in business — Trump’s dollars are as radioactive as his hate-filled message in CNN’s eyes, and thus the network couldn’t overcome its corporate revulsion to the ad’s odiousness to take what it saw as tainted money.
In addition to being a blatant expression of racism, Trump’s ad also contains overt lies, not surprising from a president whose rate of mendacity has accelerated to new levels in the runup to the campaign, increasing from an average of what now seems like a paltry 5 lies a day during the first 9 months of his presidency to 6 times that level, a whopping average of 30 lies a day in the runup to the midterms.
The ad claims that it was the Democrats who allowed Luis Bracamontes, an illegal alien who was deported then returned to the US and killed two people back into the country. However, the truth is that Bracamontes was readmitted to the U.S. while Republican George W. Bush was president.
Even worse, according to the Sacramento Bee, Bracamontes was arrested on drug charges in Phoenix in 1998, then released “for reasons unknown” by Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s office. Arpaio was pardoned by President Trump last year after being convicted of criminal contempt of court after refusing to stop his department’s practice of racial profiling.
The ad was condemned by Republican Senator Jeff Flake as “sickening” and described by Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez as a racist “dog-whistle”.
“This has been Donald Trump‘s playbook for so long, and when they go low, we go vote,” Perez said.
Perez’s advice is crucial. The only way to stop Trump and his divisive attempts to destroy our nation’s peace and diversity is to speak loudly through the ballot box this Tuesday. It’s your duty and responsibility. Get out and vote the Trump enablers out of office!
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Original reporting by Morgan Gstalter at The Hill.
