Sen. Jeff Flake (Ariz.) on Thursday urged fellow Republicans to condemn an immigration-themed video President Trump released as part of an effort to stoke his base ahead of next week’s midterms, calling the ad “sickening.”
{mosads}Flake, a frequent critic of Trump’s who is retiring after this year, tweeted, “This is a sickening ad. Republicans everywhere should denounce it.”
The video depicts Luis Bracamontes, a deported Mexican immigrant who returned to the U.S. and killed two police officers in 2014, bragging in court about killing the officers.
The ad also flashes images of the migrant caravan of Central American asylum seekers, with a narrator asking, “Who else would Democrats let in?”
Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez sharply criticized the ad after Trump tweeted it to his 55 million followers, with Perez telling CNN that the ad was divisive and a “dog-whistle.”
“This is distracting, divisive, Donald at his worst,” Perez told CNN. “This is fear-mongering.”
“This has been Donald Trump’s playbook for so long, and when they go low, we go vote,” Perez added.
Trump and other Republicans have sought to focus their messaging on immigration ahead of next week’s midterm elections, while Democrats have kept their attacks centered on GOP efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act last year, which failed in Congress.
Democrats are hoping to net at least 23 seats in the House and two in the Senate as the party attempts to regain control of both chambers of Congress this year.