Trump Tweets Controversial Video of Immigrant Cop Killer

Critics compare it to the infamous Willie Horton ad
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 1, 2018 6:42 AM CDT
Trump Tweets Controversial Video of Immigrant Cop Killer
This Jan. 16, 2018, file photo shows Luis Bracamontes acting out in court during day one of his trial in Sacramento, Calif.   (Randy Pench/The Sacramento Bee via AP, File)

President Trump is stepping up his message on immigration before the midterms in a big way with a tweeted video about an undocumented immigrant who killed two law enforcement officers in 2014. The ad centers on Luis Bracamontes, who was in the country illegally when he killed the officers in California and is now on death row, reports the Sacramento Bee. "Illegal immigrant, Luis Bracamontes, killed our people!” reads text on the ad, which shows an unrepentant Bracamontes smiling in court and promising to kill more officers if he gets out. He had been deported twice before his killing spree. "Democrats let him into our country," reads the ad, which combines images of Bracamontes with others that appear to be of migrant caravans heading to the US and was made for the Trump campaign, per CNN.

"It is outrageous what the Democrats are doing to our Country," wrote Trump. "Vote Republican now!" As the Washington Post notes, the ad is drawing comparisons to the infamous Willie Horton ad, featuring a black prisoner who murdered a woman while on furlough, that doomed Michael Dukakis in the 1988 presidential election. "This may be the most desperate and vile ad since Willie Horton," tweets former Clinton Labor Secretary Robert Reich. Other critics point out that the ad doesn't talk about white men who commit mass murder, including the alleged Pittsburgh synagogue shooter. Bracamontes has been used by the Trump campaign before, including in an ad named "Complicit" earlier this year that also accused Democrats of being lax on immigration. (Trump hinted at the legal strategy he might use on birthright citizenship.)

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