Donald Trump gave Democrats a golden moment last week when he hugged former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and then awkwardly kissed him on the ear at a town hall-style event in Phoenix.
“I don’t kiss men, but I kissed him,” Trump said.
The Biden campaign turned the kiss into something digital campaign advertising reminds voters Arpaio’s history of racial profiling and misconduct, which recalls many Latinos in the state like a time of fear.
In the ad, the Trump-Arpaio hug plays on a loop at the bottom of the screen. Above is a sequence of news clips beginning with Arpaio in an interview saying, “You know they call you the KKK. They made me, I think that’s an honor, don’t you think?’
This is followed by local news coverage clips of the tactics that led to legal trouble for Arpaio. “Latino neighborhood immigration, workplace raids and the alleged targeting of Latinos in traffic stops landed Arpaio in court,” says a reporter in the first clip.
Two more clips take the viewer through allegations of the targeting of “brown-skinned” people. Arpaio’s conviction criminal contempt of court for ignoring a judge’s order to stop singling out and incarcerating people based on their ethnicity, and Trump’s latest pardon Arpaio on this charge.
The ad concludes with a comment Trump made last Thursday at the podium about not kissing men.
The ad launched on Saturday, between Trump’s events in Arizona on Thursday and Nevada on Sunday. partly to rally Latino supporters. The ad will run on social media platforms in those two states and Pennsylvania, the Biden campaign said.
The Biden campaign said in a news release that the kiss “exemplifies Trump’s long relationship with America’s most notorious sheriff, who has dedicated his life and career to violating the civil rights and liberties of Mexicans and Latinos in Maricopa County.” leave about the ad.
“We had a real boundary with this man. People said he was too strict. … Now they’re saying, ‘Where’s Sheriff Joe?'” Trump said at an Arizona town hall.
Arpaio has long been regarded by critics as a figurehead racially based immigration policy, known for its tactics of keeping immigrants in tent cities in the heat and making male immigrant prisoners wear pink underwear. Arpaio’s actions and the 2010 state law, SB1070, which allowed police to question people about their citizenship and immigration status, have helped mobilize Latino voters in recent elections, including in 2020, when Arizona voted Democratic. In 1996, he was elected president for the first time after Bill Clinton.
“It should come as no surprise to anyone that Trump has made attacking and insulting Latinos his political brand,” said Maca Casado, a spokeswoman for the Biden campaign, in a statement. “If Trump thinks he can kiss this criminal’s ring and get away with it, he has something else entirely going for him…Trump doesn’t know the political power of our society.”
NBC News reached out to the Trump campaign for a response.
The surge in migrant arrivals at the border that began under the Trump administration and the frustration of the communities trying to shelter them has become a rallying point for Trump. Surveys showed support is increasing For tougher immigration measures at the border among Latino and other voters. But Latinos unlikely to support immigration crackdowns and deportations have increased relative to non-Latinos, according to surveys.
Trump has repeatedly criticized Biden in public comments, including immediately after his May 30 conviction in a hush money trial in Arizona and Nevada, over the number of illegal immigrants crossing the border, which has become a major issue for Trump.
At the rally, Trump said that Biden “imported more illegal aliens into our country than ever before. … They are changing the structure of our country; they are destroying our country.”
Earlier, Trump said immigrants were “poisoning the blood” of the country and vowed to carry out the largest mass deportation in US history on his first day back in office.
He also said Biden was letting criminals into the country, suggesting it was due to Venezuelans coming over the border.
“They took all their criminals in Venezuela and dumped them in a place called the United States of America,” Trump said, adding that the crime rate in Venezuela has decreased as a result.
“Next time we will meet in Venezuela because it will be safer,” he said.
PolitiFact looked into Trump’s past statements about Venezuela throwing out criminals and found that lie.