NBC announced Monday that it will no longer run an “insensitive” ad approved by President Trump that ties illegal immigration to crime after CNN deemed the ad “racist” and refused to air it.
“After further review we recognize the insensitive nature of the ad and have decided to cease airing it across our properties as soon as possible,” NBC Universal said in a statement.
The 30-second ad, paid for by Donald J. Trump for President, intercuts clips of the illegal-immigrant caravan currently making its way north from Central America with images of Luis Bracamontes, a Mexican illegal immigrant convicted in 2014 for killing two sheriff’s deputies.
“Dangerous illegal criminals like cop killer Luis Bracamontes don’t care about our laws,” the ad says.
President Trump tweeted a longer version of the ad last week, which falsely accused Democrats of letting Bracamontes “into our country” and letting “him stay.” CNN refused to run the ad and its anchors and chyrons repeatedly referred to it as “racist.”
Donald Trump Jr. castigated CNN for refusing to run the ad on Twitter, promoting a response from CNN’s communications team.
“CNN has made it abundantly clear in its editorial coverage that this ad is racist,” the network’s public-relations account wrote on Twitter. “When presented with an opportunity to be paid to take a version of this ad, we declined.”
Fox News also pulled the ad over the weekend, CNN reported.
“Upon further review, FOX News pulled the ad yesterday and it will not appear on either FOX News Channel or FOX Business Network,” ad-sales president Marianne Gambelli told CNN.
Trump has emphasized the threat posed by illegal immigration in the run up to Tuesday’s elections, citing the 3,500-person caravan in attacking existing asylum laws, which will allow the entire caravan to remain in the country while its asylum claims are adjudicated.