President Trump's anti-immigrant rhetoric has reached a new level.
The Trump campaign, in an attempt to vouch for Republicans, rolled out what CNN calls "the most racially charged national political ad in 30 years" on Wednesday. It features a twice-deported Mexican man who returned to America and killed two police officers, and menacingly claims, "Democrats let him into our country."
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The ad immediately elicited comparisons to former President George H.W. Bush's "Willie Horton" ad. The 1988 ad connected Bush's Democratic competitor Michael Dukakis to Horton, a black man who raped a white woman while out of jail on a furlough program Dukakis had supported. And while it may be seen as racist today, "it was regarded at the time as devastating to the Dukakis campaign," CNN points out.
The ad also calls back to Trump's infamous campaign debut, when he said Mexican immigrants were "bringing crime, they're rapists." So it's no surprise that Trump is making the same argument once again, conservative commentator Scott Jennings told CNN's Chris Cuomo.
Dozens of Twitter users, media hosts, and retiring Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) have decried the ad. It's still pinned to the top of Trump's Twitter feed.
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