Democratic presidential candidate Julián Castro’s campaign bought ad time on Fox News to tell President Trump: “Americans were killed because you stoked the fire of racists.”
The ad will air on Fox News locally around Bedminster, New Jersey, where Trump is scheduled to play golf at his private club on Wednesday. The cost of the local ad buy was $2,775, said Castro’s press secretary, Saywer Hackett, who added that the campaign is “only targeting Fox in Bedminster because that’s where the president is and we’re sending the message directly to him.”
Hackett told TheWrap that the ad, seen below, will run during “Fox & Friends.”
A message for @realdonaldtrump: pic.twitter.com/WFYRxm69hA
— Julián Castro (@JulianCastro) August 13, 2019
In the 30-second clip, Castro says: “President Trump, you referred to countries as shitholes. You urged American congresswomen to ‘go back to where they came from.’ You called immigrants rapists. As we saw in El Paso, Americans were killed because you stoked the fire of racists. Innocent people were shot down because they look different from you. Because they look like me. They look like my family. Words have consequences. ¡Ya basta!”
“¡Ya basta!” translates to “Enough!”
A Fox News spokesperson declined to comment.
Castro, a former mayor of San Antonio, was linking the president’s rhetoric on immigrants to the mass shooting in El Paso earlier this month. Some of Trump’s language was echoed in an anti-immigration screed posted to 8chan. Just prior to the shooting, a post appeared on 8chan from someone who identified himself as the shooter. The manifesto called undocumented immigrants as “invaders,” echoing Trump’s language.
Castro has not yet qualified for the September Democratic primary debate, but gained attention after arguing with fellow Texan and presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke during a debate in June.
Trump is an avid Fox News viewer, and it’s not unheard of for companies to try to exploit the Fox-to-Trump pipeline: The Maroun bridge company appealed directly to Trump in a Fox News ad placement last summer, and prices for ad placements during the president’s favorite shows have surged as sellers have promoted the timeslots as a way to get his attention.