Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., called on Republicans to “denounce” a racially charged campaign ad President Trump posted on social media Wednesday that accuses Democrats of permitting entry to an illegal immigrant “killed our people.”
“This is a sickening ad,” Flake tweeted Thursday. “Republicans everywhere should denounce it.”
This is a sickening ad. Republicans everywhere should denounce it. https://t.co/5sftOt57pI
— Jeff Flake (@JeffFlake) November 1, 2018
The ad focuses on Luis Bracamontes of Mexico, who was convicted of killing two U.S. cops in 2014 and received the death penalty when he was sentenced in April.
“Democrats let him into our country … Democrats let him stay,” the ad says.
“Who else would Democrats let in?” the ad says later.
Bracamontes had been deported on multiple occasions, including in 2001, when as the Daily Beast notes, George W. Bush was president.
Democrats and some Republicans criticized the ad and Trump for sharing it.
Republican Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who ran against Trump in the 2016 Republican primary, tweeted: “The politics of fear, hatred and division should have no place in our country or the Republican Party, let alone the Presidency. All Americans should reject this ad and its motives.”
The politics of fear, hatred and division should have no place in our country or the Republican Party, let alone the Presidency. All Americans should reject this ad and its motives. https://t.co/qaVxN2GDqo
— John Kasich (@JohnKasich) November 1, 2018
Immigration has been a key topic among Republicans leading up to the 2018 midterm elections, especially as at least two caravans of migrants head through Mexico to the southern U.S. border. Trump announced Wednesday that up to 15,000 troops will be sent to the border before the first caravan arrives, and emphasizing that “nobody is coming in” illegally.
Flake has been an outspoken critic of Trump and the two have sparred in the past, particularly after Flake’s book, Conscience of a Conservative, was published last year and was critical of Republicans who supported Trump.
Flake was elected to the Senate in 2012 and announced last year that he would not be seeking re-election in the 2018 midterm elections.
