The Trump playbook
This ad for a Minnesota congressional candidate goes all in on Trump's migrant caravan rhetoric
Trumpian language about the approaching migrant caravan has become inescapable in the weeks before the midterm election, even in a congressional race as far away from the southern border as Minnesota.
A new attack ad against Dan Feehan, a Democrat running to represent Minnesota's 1st Congressional District, stokes fears about the caravan of migrants marching to the United States by declaring it "full of gang members and criminals."
The source of this statement is a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson who said Tuesday that there "are individuals within the caravan who are gang members or have significant criminal histories," although the "full of" part is the ad's own invention. President Trump also admitted to bending the truth about the migrants when he baselessly suggested there could be "unknown Middle Easterners" in the caravan. The migrants are not expected to reach the United States until December, CBS News reports.
The ad goes on to attack Feehan for supposedly being an advocate for "open borders and amnesty," which would "put Minnesota families at risk." This "open borders" attack has become a Trump staple, but Feehan on his campaign website calls for "comprehensive immigration reform that strengthens our borders."
The Congressional Leadership Fund Super PAC is responsible for this ad, and it's easy to see why they'd be so interested in this race. Although Trump won the district by 15 points in 2016, FiveThirtyEight projects a close race next month, giving Feehan a 54 percent chance of winning. Watch the ad below. Brendan Morrow