NBC on Sunday ran an anti-immigration advertisement from President Trump that CNN had decided not to run, deeming it too racist to air.
The 30-second ad aired by NBC was a shorter version of the video Trump tweeted last week, which links the so-called migrant caravan heading toward the Southern border with Luis Bracamontes, a man convicted of killing two police officers.
The NBC version, aired in the middle of its “Sunday Night Football” broadcast, connected increased immigration with increased levels of crime, a claim that has been debunked by numerous studies, The New York Times reported.{mosads}
As immigrant populations in the U.S. have grown for decades, violent crime in the country has declined.
CNN fired back on Saturday after the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., criticized the network for not running the ad.
“CNN has made it abundantly clear in its editorial coverage that this ad is racist,” CNN’s PR account tweeted. “When presented with an opportunity to be paid to take a version of this ad, we declined. Those are the facts.”
NBC did not immediately respond to an email from The Hill.
Trump has been invoking the migrant caravan to stoke anti-immigration fears ahead of the midterm elections. Critics have accused him of using racist and xenophobic imagery to galvanize his base and boost the GOP.