Facebook Pulls Racist Trump Ad Following NBC, CNN, and Fox News
The spot was too controversial for TV. And, now, the biggest social media platform has pulled it too.
Lachlan Markay 11.05.18 10:22 AM ET
Facebook on Monday pulled down advertisements from President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign that sought to fire up conservative voters in two midterm battleground states with an ad deemed “racist” by major television broadcasters. The company’s decision came after CNN, NBC, and Fox News had all pulled down the ad, which features a convicted cop-killer who was deported multiple times before he shot and killed two California sheriff’s deputies. The ad was released as a video by the Trump campaign last week.
Facebook soon followed suit. “This ad violates Facebook's advertising policy against sensational content so we are rejecting it. While the video is allowed to be posted on Facebook, it cannot receive paid distribution,” wrote a spokesperson for the company in an emailed statement.
The spokesperson said the ad violated the company’s policy against “sensational content” in advertisements. That policy prohibits “shocking, sensational, disrespectful or excessively violent content” in paid ads. “This includes dehumanizing or denigrating entire groups of people and using frightening and exaggerated rumors of danger.”
The ad, which features a convicted cop-killer who was deported multiple times before he shot and killed two California sheriff’s deputies, was released as a video by the Trump campaign last week. The spot seeks to pin the blame for those murders on immigrants generally along with Democratic policymakers who favor more lax immigration laws. Luis Brocamontes, the criminal at issue, was in fact arrested and released in 1998 by the office of then-Maricopa County sheriff Joe Arpaio, whom Trump pardoned of a misdemeanor criminal offense this year. Brocamontes last entered the country illegally during the George W. Bush administration.
“America cannot allow this invasion. The migrant caravan must be stopped,” the Trump campaign’s 30-second ad declares. “President Trump and his allies will protect our border and keep our families safe.”
The ad aired during Sunday Night Football on NBC. And Facebook advertising data showed that the Trump campaign spent between $27,000 and $94,000 promoting the ads on that platform. A total of between 2.8 million and 5 million Facebook users viewed them before they were removed, according to that data.
By Monday afternoon, NBC had announced it would no longer be airing the spot. Fox News had too, saying in a statement from VP of ad sales Marianne Gabelli that, “upon further review,” the ad was pulled on Sunday and “will not appear on either FOX News Channel or FOX Business Network.”
Facebook’s decision came soon thereafter.
The announcements infuriated Brad Parscale, the manager of Trump’s 2020 reelection campaign. Facebook and the TV networks that pulled the ad “have chosen to stand with those ILLEGALLY IN THIS COUNTRY. Instead of standing with LEGAL IMMIGRANTS and those that follow our laws,” he wrote in a Monday afternoon tweet.
LYIN' Trump, for his part, pleaded ignorance when asked about the ad on Monday afternoon. “I don’t know about it. You’re telling me something i don't know about,” he told reporters gathered at Andrews Air Force Base. “We have a lot of ads and they certainly are effective based on the numbers that we’re seeing.”
Asked about those who considered the ad offensive, the president said, “A lot of things are offensive. Your questions are offensive a lot of times.”
The Trump campaign had promoted the video through two-dozen Facebook ads purchased on Sunday and Monday.The campaign, notably, only targeted voters in Arizona and Florida with the Facebook ad. Those are two swing states, with large Hispanic populations, where Republicans hope to win crucial U.S. Senate elections on Tuesday.
Secret Waiver Clears Possible Donald Trump Russia Rod Rosenstein Replacement | Rachel Maddow | MSNBC
"Trump shocks with racist new ad days before midterms"
MSNBC Published on Nov 2, 2018
Rachel Maddow reports on a Trump White House ethics waiver uncovered by CREW, granted to Noel Francisco who would oversee the Trump Russia investigation if Rod Rosenstein is fired, even though his former law firm represents the Trump campaign.
Is Sessions gone after the midterms? Rosenstein? If Rosenstein then there has not been a person in the number three position for months, so next in line to take over the Mueller investigation would be the Solicitor General of the United States, Noel Francisco, who took office on September 19, 2017. However, under normal circumstance he would also have to recuse himself (as Sessions did) because he has previously worked for Trump campaign law firm Jones Day. Problem is Trump is a client of Jones Day which Francisco is still a partner. So then we come to the alleged secret waiver designed to open the way for Francisco to take over if Rosenstein is booted. Note: the White House is supposed to maintain an online list of waivers. The ethics waiver for Francisco, signed by WH lawyer McGahn (due himself to leave this fall), was not put on the list. As Rachel says, "A story in itself."
From video:
CREW Discovers Previously Undisclosed Ethics Waiver for Solicitor General Noel Francisco
By CREW Staff November 2, 2018
CREW has uncovered a previously undisclosed ethics waiver that may represent an effort to clear one of the obstacles to Solicitor General Noel Francisco replacing Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein as the official overseeing the Russia investigation.
If Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein either resigns or is fired, someone else will have to oversee the Special Counsel investigation. Next in line appears to be Solicitor General Noel Francisco. The problem is that Mr. Francisco has ties to the pending investigation that should preclude his participation.
For one thing, his former law firm, Jones Day, represents the Trump Presidential Campaign in the Special Counsel investigation. Also, Mr. Francisco has a continuing financial relationship with Jones Day, which owes him more than half a million dollars. In addition, he previously appeared before the Justice Department as a member of a “Landing Team” on behalf of the Presidential Transition Team.
The first of the three obstacles Mr. Francisco faces – his former employment relationship with Jones Day – raises an issue under the Trump ethics Executive Order. As required by that Executive Order, Mr. Francisco signed an ethics pledge in which he promised that, for two years after joining the government, he would not participate in any investigation in which Jones Day represents a client. That promise means he must stay out of the Special Counsel investigation until at least late January 2019.
However, CREW has discovered that the Trump administration issued Mr. Francisco an ethics waiver on April 24, 2018. The waiver relieves him from any obligation to honor his ethics pledge to recuse from investigations involving Jones Day. The waiver states only that he is relieved of this obligation and offers no justification whatsoever. It simply waives the obligation, thereby eliminating one of the three obstacles to his overseeing the Special Counsel investigation.
Dining club emails reveal Kavanaugh's close ties to Trump's solicitor general
New supreme court justice was a member of the Eureka club with Noel Francisco, who argues government cases before court
Stephanie Kirchgaessner in Washington @skirchy Thu 25 Oct 2018 21.00 AEDT
Brett Kavanaugh attended dinner in 2001-2003 with Noel Francisco and other lawyers who now regularly appear before the supreme court on behalf of corporate clients. Photograph: Alex Brandon/AP
Brett Kavanaugh, the new supreme court justice, counts the Trump administration’s solicitor general, who will be arguing cases before the high court on behalf of the president, as a close professional friend, according to emails that offer new insights into an all-male dinner club that Kavanaugh used to attend. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/oct/25/brett-kavanaugh-eureka-club-noel-francisco-emails
Next-in-line Mueller supervisor got White House ethics waiver in April
Solicitor General Noel Francisco has long been considered a likely candidate to oversee special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe if there is a shake-up at the Justice Department. | Cliff Owen/AP Photo
Market Data 
Markets 
AI
