Both NBC and Fox News announced Monday that they will cease airing the Trump campaign’s racist anti-immigration midterms ad, CNN reports. NBC was the first to pull the ad—which drew erroneous parallels between an undocumented Mexican immigrant who killed two cops and the caravan of migrants currently hundreds of miles from the Southern border of the United States—amid audience backlash after it aired in a truncated 30-second form during an NFL game between the New England Patriots and Green Bay Packers. Among the angry viewers was Debra Messing, star of the hit NBC sitcom Will and Grace, who tweeted pointed criticism of the clip.
“I want you to know that I am ashamed that my network aired this disgusting racist ad,” Messing wrote in a tweet addressed to Will and Grace fans. “It is the antithesis of everything I personally believe in, and what, I believe, our show is all about.”
The network issued a statement explaining the decision to pull the ad.
“After further review we recognize the insensitive nature of the ad and have decided to cease airing it across our properties as soon as possible,” an NBC Universal rep said in a statement.
It is outrageous what the Democrats are doing to our Country. Vote Republican now! https://t.co/0pWiwCHGbh pic.twitter.com/2crea9HF7G
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 31, 2018
Fox News followed NBC’s example and issued a statement of their own:
“Upon further review, Fox News pulled the ad yesterday and it will not appear on either Fox News Channel or Fox Business Network,” Fox News’ president of advertisement sales, Marianne Gabelli, said in a statement issued to CNN on Monday morning.
Later on Monday, Facebook also announced it was removing the ad, while CNN said it refused to air it in the first place:
“CNN has made it abundantly clear in its editorial coverage that this ad is racist,” a CNN rep tweeted when First Failson Donald Trump Jr. complained after the network barred the ad produced by the Trump campaign. “When presented with an opportunity to be paid to take a version of this ad, we declined. Those are the facts.”
Congrats to Donald Trump on being more racist than Fox News.
