President Trump rejected Democrats’ accusations Thursday that his latest campaign ad on illegal immigration is similar to the racially tinged “Willie Horton” advertisement of a…
President Trump rejected Democrats’ accusations Thursday that his latest campaign ad on illegal immigration is similar to the racially tinged “Willie Horton” advertisement of a past presidential campaign, and said his team has more potential ads highlighting savage crimes by illegal immigrants.
“I don’t view it as the Willie Horton ad at all,” the president told The Washington Times in an exclusive interview. “I think it’s just an ad where somebody is a bad guy, came in illegally, twice, and we can’t do that.”
The ad, posted on Mr. Trump’s Twitter feed, features an illegal immigrant, Luis Bracamontes, smiling and laughing in court as he is convicted of killing two police officers in 2014. The twice-deported immigrant from Mexico came back to the U. S. to commit his crimes.
The advertisement also compares his case to the caravans of migrants moving toward the U. S. border from Central America, and blames Democrats for lax border security.
Democrats are livid about the ad, comparing it to the “Willie Horton” ad that Republicans ran against Democratic presidential nominee Michael Dukakis in 1988. That advertisement cited the case of Horton, who was on a release program from prison in Massachusetts when he committed a murder. Mr. Dukakis had been governor at the time.
Mr. Trump agreed that his ad is tough, “but correct.”
“It’s a truthful ad,” the president said in an interview in the Oval Office. “He’s a mean guy. You don’t want him on the streets. It’s well received in some ways. Some people think it’s an appropriate ad; some people don’t like it.”
He said his campaign team has numerous similar videotapes of illegal immigrants who’ve committed crimes.
“We have a tremendous number of bad tapes. This is just one of them,” he said.
Asked if there will be more such ads, the president replied, “Maybe.”
