Donald Trump gave Democrats a golden moment when he hugged and then awkwardly kissed the former Maricopa County sheriff Joe Arpaio right near his ear during a town hall-style event in Phoenix last week.
“I don’t kiss men, but I kissed him,” Trump said afterwards.
The Biden The campaign turned the kiss into a digital campaign ad that reminds voters of Arpaio’s history of racial profiling and misconduct, which many Latinos in the state remember as a time of fear.
In the ad, Trump and Arpaio’s embrace plays continuously on a loop at the bottom of the screen. A series of news clips are shown at the top, starting with Arpaio saying in an interview: “You know, they call you KKK. They robbed me, I consider it an honor, right?”
That’s followed by excerpts from local reporting on the tactics that led to legal trouble for Arpaio. “Immigration investigations in Latino neighborhoods, workplace raids and alleged targeting of Latinos in traffic stops landed Arpaio in court,” a reporter says in the first clip.
Two more clips take the viewer through allegations of targeting people with “brown skin,” Arpaio’s conviction for criminal contempt of court for ignoring a judge’s order to stop singling out people based on their ethnicity and holding them, and Trump’s eventual pardon of Arpaio for that conviction.
The ad ends with the comment Trump made on stage last Thursday about not kissing men.
The ad launched Saturday, between Trump events in Arizona on Thursday and Nevada on Sunday, the purpose of which was in part to rally Latino supporters. The ad will appear on social media platforms in those two states and Pennsylvania, the Biden campaign said.
The kiss is an example of “Trump’s airtight, longstanding relationship with America’s most notorious sheriff, who had dedicated his life and career to violating the civil rights and freedoms of Mexicans and Latinos in Maricopa County,” the Biden campaign said in a news release . release about the advertisement.
“We had a real boundary with this guy. People said he was too tough. … Now they’re saying, ‘Where’s Sheriff Joe?'” Trump said at the Arizona town hall.
Arpaio has long been viewed by critics as the face of racially intolerant immigration policies, known for tactics such as detaining immigrants in tent cities in the heat and making male immigrant detainees wear pink underwear. Arpaio’s actions and the 2010 state law SB1070, which allowed police to question people about their citizenship and immigration status, helped mobilize Latino voters in recent elections, including in 2020 when Arizona went Democrat for the first time since Bill Clinton in 1996. voted as president. .
“Dealing with the man who illegally rounded up and abused Mexicans and Latinos every chance he got should surprise no one — Trump has made attacking and vilifying Latinos his political brand,” Biden campaign spokeswoman Maca Casado said in a statement declaration. “If Trump thinks he can kiss this criminal’s ring and get away with it, he’s in for something completely different. Trump doesn’t know the political power of our community.”
NBC News has contacted the Trump campaign for comment.
A surge in migrants arriving at the border that began during the Trump administration and the frustration of communities that have tried to accommodate them have become rallying points for Trump. Polls show support among Latino and other voters for stricter immigration measures at the border has increased. But according to surveys, Latinos are less likely than non-Latinos to support immigration policies and increased deportations.
Trump has repeatedly criticized Biden during the events in Arizona and Nevada over the number of immigrants crossing the border illegally, which has become Trump’s favorite topic in public comments, including immediately after his conviction in his hush money trial on May 30.
During his rally, Trump said Biden has “imported more illegal aliens into our country than ever before. … They are changing the fabric of our country, they are destroying our country.”
Trump has previously said immigrants are “poisoning the blood” of the country and vowed to carry out the largest mass deportation in US history on his first day back in power.
He also said Biden has allowed criminals into the country, suggesting this was the case with Venezuelans arriving at the border.
“In Venezuela, they took all their criminals and dumped them in a place called the United States of America,” Trump said, adding that Venezuela’s crime rate had dropped as a result.
“Next time we will meet in Venezuela because it will be a lot safer there,” he said.
PolitiFact investigated previous statements Trump has made about dumping criminals in Venezuela and found them to be false.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
