NBC ran a Trump ad CNN said was too racist to show
President Trump's final television ad of this campaign season has been widely condemned for its inaccuracy, fear-mongering, and bigotry. It was rejected for air time by CNN but ran on NBC Sunday evening.
CNN explained the decision to refuse the ad on Twitter Saturday, noting the network "has made it abundantly clear in its editorial coverage that this ad is racist" and so refused "to be paid to take a version" to the public. (Why Trump would wish to run his ad on a network for which he regularly professes deep animosity is another question.)
The next day, however, a shortened version of the spot aired during NBC's Sunday Night Football. The edited clip did not include a false claim about the circumstances under which Luis Bracamontes, an undocumented immigrant sentenced to death this February for killing two police officers, was permitted to stay in the United States. However, it retained a false claim that a higher population of immigrants leads to higher crime rates.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
NBC did not respond to a New York Times request for comment.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.
-
NY attorney general asks public for ICE raid footageSpeed Read Rep. Dan Goldman claims ICE wrongly detained four US citizens in the Canal Street raid and held them for a whole day without charges
-
Trump’s huge ballroom to replace razed East WingSpeed Read The White House’s east wing is being torn down amid ballroom construction
-
Trump expands boat strikes to Pacific, killing 5 moreSpeed Read The US military destroyed two more alleged drug smuggling boats in international waters
-
Trump demands millions from his administrationSpeed Read The president has requested $230 million in compensation from the Justice Department for previous federal investigations
-
Trump nominee in limbo after racist texts leakSpeed Read Paul Ingrassia lost Republican support following the exposure of past racist text messages
-
Trump begins East Wing demolition for ballroomspeed read The president’s new construction will cost $250 million
-
Appeals court clears Trump’s Portland troop deploymentSpeed Read A divided federal appeals court ruled that President Trump can send the National Guard to Portland
-
Millions turn out for anti-Trump ‘No Kings’ ralliesSpeed Read An estimated 7 million people participated, 2 million more than at the first ‘No Kings’ protest in June



