As Donald Trump’s campaign has refused to back down from the dangerous “invasion” rhetoric that helped lead to a white supremacist terror attack targeting Latinos in Texas, a leading immigrant rights advocacy group has launched a new “2020 Ad Watch” tool to help track racist and anti-immigrant ads going into the upcoming election.
“Ahead of the 2020 elections, America’s Voice will be tracking and shining a spotlight on Republicans’ pattern of hate,” America’s Voice deputy director Pili Tobar said in a statement, “and we will call out the candidates, campaigns, committees, superPACs, and donors responsible for them. As we saw in Charlottesville, in Pittsburgh, and now in El Paso, words matter; they have meaning and real life consequences.”
The white supremacist killer who drove nine hours to intentionally target Latino families in El Paso complained about a supposed “Hispanic invasion of Texas” in his writings. This same “invasion” rhetoric has been used by Trump’s campaign in thousands of Facebook ads, and has been used at least a dozen times by Trump during press conferences and rallies, journalist Aaron Rupar tweeted.
But the campaign is refusing to stop these sort of ads, and in fact America’s Voice notes that this week the campaign “launched over a dozen different buys of an anti-immigrant ad, using footage from what appears to be Customs and Border Protection tear-gassing migrants at the border last year.” No doubt a proud moment for the sadists that make up the administration, and when hating immigrants is the only election strategy, “we have to be vigilant, expose these ads for what they are, and make clear that words matter,” America’s Voice continued.
“The Trump campaign already spent millions on Facebook ads talking about the Hispanic migrant ‘invasion,’ and we expect they and other Republican candidates, committees and PACs will spend millions more,” not to mention the everyday citizens who are helping fund white supremacy through their donations but seem very shamed about when that publicly available information gets shared. “Trump’s failed political strategy has done enough damage to this country,” Tobar said, “and it’s time for him to just stop.”