Racist-In-Chief
President Trump has provided America with yet another reminder to never underestimate how deep into the gutter he will crawl to win an election. On Wednesday afternoon, the president tweeted a new, deeply racist campaign ad in which he continued to drive the narrative that Democrats are pro-crime. It begins with footage of a Mexican man named Luis Bracamontes bragging about how he killed police officers. Bracamontes has been deported, but re-entered the United States illegally, and in February was convicted of killing two deputies in California. The Democrats are to blame, the ad argues, as they will be for all the crime that will be wrought on the nation if the caravan of Hispanic migrants is able to make its way to the border.
Democrats let him into our country, the copy reads as a menacing bass thumps. Democrats let him stay. The ad then cuts to another Hispanic man telling a reporter that he plans to apply for a pardon in the United States. Next are several clips of unruly mobs storming various gates. Who else would Democrats let in? the ad concludes before noting that Trump and Republicans are making America safe.
Its one of the most racist, over-the-top and patently false political ads in recent memory. Many observers are comparing it to the Willie Horton spot produced by supporters of George H.W. Bushs 1988 presidential campaign. That ad highlighted how a convict named William Horton who did not actually go by Willie raped a woman while on release as part of a furlough program in the Massachusetts state prison system. As historian Kevin Kruse laid out on Twitter, Bushs opponent, Massachusetts governor Michael Dukakis, did not actually institute the furlough program for which he was blamed. It was adopted by his predecessor, who modeled it after a program put in place by Ronald Reagan when he was the governor of California. Bush went on to win the election, but the ad was widely condemned. Even Roger Stone, the former Trump adviser known for his dirty tricks, said it was stepping over a line.
The ad Trump released Wednesday makes Willie Horton look like a The More You Know public service announcement. It was also endorsed and promoted by the sitting president of the United States, not an outside group supporting a candidate.
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trump-racist-ad-750415/