Politics is an ugly game. And it doesn’t get much uglier than this.
The Trump campaign released a 30-second ad accusing Democrats of being “complicit in all murders” committed by illegal aliens.
The ad, released online, is not scheduled to be shown on TV — for the moment.
CNN refers to the ad as “hard right,” although they don’t explain why they would characterize it that way. I don’t recall CNN referring to tweets and speeches by Democrats that accuse Republicans of killing people as “hard left.”
Hours into the government shutdown, President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign released a hard-right ad accusing Democrats of being “complicit in all murders” committed by undocumented immigrants.
The 30-second video opens with footage of a recent courtroom outburst by Luis Bracamontes, a twice-deported undocumented immigrant accused of killing two Sacramento-area deputies in 2014. The ad labels Bracamontes as “pure evil.”
“Now Democrats who stand in our way will be complicit in every murder committed by illegal immigrants,” the video’s narrator says. “President Trump will fix our border and keep our families safe.”
A Republican familiar with the effort tells CNN that the video, titled “Complicit,” will only appear online — not on TV — for now.
In a statement, Michael Glassner, the executive director of Trump’s reelection campaign committee, said the ad was intended to highlight “the stark contrast between ‘complicit’ Democrats and the President for his full commitment to build a wall and fix our border to protect Americans from drugs, murder and other atrocities.”
Speaker Paul Ryan said on “Face the Nation” that he wouldn’t comment on the ad:
“I’m not going to comment,” Ryan insisted after initially commenting. “I just saw that. I don’t know if that’s necessarily productive. It’s not secret the president has strong views on immigration. But what is not productive is a pointless government shutdown that the Senate Democrats have foisted on this country.”
As a sort of response, the hyper-partisan site Shareblue tried to blame Trump for the crimes of white supremacists:
But to use the ad’s twisted logic, crimes committed by white supremacists, or other criminals like mass shooters, would thus be the fault of Republicans.
Trump expressed sympathy for neo-Nazis, describing them as “very fine” people, even though one of them had killed a woman in Charlottesville, Virginia. He has also repeatedly amplified white supremacists and their messages on social media.
By his own ad’s rationale, Trump and Republicans are therefore “complicit” in multiple killings perpetrated by white supremacists like the church shooting in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015.
I just wonder what Katie Steinle’s parents and all the parents of people murdered by illegals think of Trump using their child’s death for political purposes.
The ad was posted on YouTube the day the shutdown began so it has nothing to do with that. But Ryan’s “not necessarily productive” comment is an understatement. The ad is like tossing a stick of dynamite into the negotiating room. I don’t think it will put the Democrats in the mood to cooperate in ending the shutdown.
If this ad is a preview of the 2020 campaign, I’d recommend you dust off your waders and be prepared for the mother of all sh*tstorms.
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