Donald Trump accuses Democrats of allowing immigrant murderers into US in controversial election advert

David Gardner1 November 2018

President Donald Trump has launched a final midterm election campaign blitz with a racially-charged political advert that accuses Democrats of plotting to allow immigrant murderers into America.

The advert was described by CNN today as “the most extreme step yet in the most inflammatory closing argument of any campaign in recent memory.”

It features Luis Bracamontes, an illegal immigrant from Mexico who has been deported twice but sneaked back into the US and was convicted in February of murdering two California police officers.

“I’m going to kill more cops soon,” a grinning Bracamontes is shown saying in court as captions flash across the screen reading: “Democrats let him into our country. Democrats let him stay.”

Donald Trump is trying to whip up anti-Democrat sentiment ahead of the midterm elections (Getty Images)

The advert, which was produced by Mr Trump’s campaign and shared in a tweet by the president only days before next week’s crucial midterm elections, also includes footage of the migrant caravan heading through Mexico to the US border from Central America together with a caption asking: “Who else would Democrats let in?”

It ends with the boast: “President Donald J. Trump and Republicans are making America safe again!”

Mr Trump posted the film on Twitter with the message: “It’s outrageous what the Democrats are doing to our country. Vote Republican now!”

The advert has been compared with the notorious Willie Horton campaign advert financed by backers of George H.W. Bush in the 1988 presidential election which targetted a prison release plan being pushed by his Democrat opponent Michael Dukakis. Horton was an African-American prisoner who was released from jail for a weekend and went on to commit a rape, armed robbery and assault.

The advert was blasted at the time for playing to white voter fears and black stereotypes but was nevertheless regarded as being devastating to the doomed Dukakis campaign.

Former US Secretary of Labour Robert Reich called the Bracamontes advert “the most desperate and vile since Willie Horton”.

“They’ve resorted to fear mongering,” he wrote of the Republicans.

Mr Trump is attempting to steer the debate towards immigration issues as he begins a final campaign swing with 11 rallies in eight states before Tuesday’s vote that will decide whether the Republicans can regain control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate.

Taking the Pentagon by surprise last night, he also suggested that as many as 15,000 US troops could be deployed to America’s borders with Mexico to keep out undocumented immigrants.

“We have to have a wall of people,” he told ABC News.

The president will criss-cross the nation, landing him in Senate battlefields such as Indiana, Missouri and Florida along with nail-biter contests for governor in Georgia and Ohio.

Speaking at a rally in Florida last night, Mr Trump again took aim at the US media, claiming that a third of Americans believed it was “the enemy of the people”.

After being criticised for his response to the synagogue massacre that left 11 dead in Pittsburgh last weekend, Mr Trump told supporters that he had “forcefully condemned hatred and bigotry” but it had not been reported.

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