washington
CNN
—
Former President Donald Trump’s late-campaign television ads are littered with deceptively edited and misleading statements.
President Trump’s ads omit Vice President Kamala Harris’ comments on tax policy and critical language about it. A President Trump ad misleadingly portrays comments made by the Trump campaign and administration about fracking as if they were from independent news outlets.
Another Trump ad takes an immigration-related quote from a six-year-old news article significantly out of context and falsely portrays it as a comment on the Biden-Harris administration. Another ad changes the words in an economic news headline. Another ad also misrepresents the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Asked to comment on CNN’s findings, Trump campaign spokeswoman Caroline Leavitt chose not to defend any specifics. Instead, she said Friday, “President Trump has the most shocking and best-produced ads in the industry.” She believed they were the ones who damaged Harris’ campaign.
All of the ads featured in this article are among the 20 most aired ads by President Trump and his outside allies in the past two weeks, according to data provided by AdImpact. Here’s a fact check.
Tactic: Identify keywords
One of Trump’s ads removes critical language from two separate quotes about Harris’ tax policy.
The ad shows two video clips of Harris saying, “Taxes have to go up.” However, this ad removes the keyword from the beginning and end of her sentence.
Harris actually said at an event during her last presidential campaign in 2019 that “inheritance taxes for the wealthiest Americans must be raised.”
The same ad also features on-screen text from a New York Times article: “Mr. Harris is calling for significant tax increases.” But, as the Times itself points out, this is also a misleading cut. What the Times article actually said was, “Harris wants big tax increases on the wealthiest Americans and big corporations.”
At least two other President Trump ads employ similar deceptions on the same topic.
The ads feature on-screen text that reads, “Harris will raise taxes,” which is attributed to a CBS News article. But the CBS News article actually says: “Mr. Harris will raise taxes on high-income earners to pay for the plan.”
Tactic: Portray the Trump campaign’s claims as statements from the news media.
One Trump ad criticizes Harris’ past support for a fracking ban (which she says she no longer supports), with the words “Kamala’s Plan: ‘Killing Jobs'” next to it. It has the Reuters logo on it, making it look like it is. That seems to be what Reuters declared. However, the Reuters article cited in the small print in the ad actually used the phrase “job-killing” only in reporting claims made by President Trump’s own 2020 campaign. .
The article is about Joe Biden’s comments, not Harris’s, saying, “The Trump campaign has already slammed Biden’s comments, saying that Biden’s energy policies will cost jobs in states like Pennsylvania. They claimed it was proof.”
The same ad features the words “KAMALA’S CHEME: ‘RISE GAS PRICES’,” which is purported to be a 2021 article from E&E News, an environment and energy publication. However, that 2021 article used the phrase “increase gas prices” only when explaining the Trump administration’s argument. The article was published just days before President Trump left office, stating that “Outgoing Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette says ban on fracking will cost millions of jobs and increase the price of gas at the pump.” “And electricity prices will rise,” he said.
Tactic: Cite “sources” that are unrelated to the ad’s claims.
President Trump’s ad criticizing the Biden-Harris administration’s performance says, “Their weakness led to war.” Welfare for illegal aliens. ” The ad flashes the text “Welfare for Illegal Immigrants” on the screen and attributes the words to a 2018 NBC News article.
However, the NBC News article did not even mention that Biden and Harris will not take office until 2021. The article also happened to use the phrase “welfare for illegal immigrants” in a completely different context than the one used in President Trump’s ad.
The article criticized job permit rules that prevent immigrants enrolled in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program from taking certain jobs. “It’s an utter travesty that qualified people can’t get permission from the government to get haircuts,” the newspaper said. “Regardless of your position on welfare for illegal immigrants, permission is not the same thing as food stamps or other government safety nets. It’s clearly different.”
Tactic: Make your quote more dramatic
One Trump ad has the text “Massive Layoffs in Michigan” displayed on the screen. The ad criticizes Harris’ support for electric vehicles and attributes her words to a March 28 article in Newsweek magazine.
But that Newsweek article wasn’t actually referring to “massive” layoffs, but at least the slightly less dramatic term “massive” layoffs. The report stated that a total of less than 1,400 jobs had been cut at the two car factories. And the ad fails to mention that the number of people employed in Michigan’s auto manufacturing industry has increased by about 15% under the Biden-Harris administration. The number of workers employed in auto parts manufacturing in the state is down about 6%, but is now at its highest level since 2007.
Tactic: Explaining the quote incorrectly
In one Trump ad, a narrator says, “The Biden-Harris Administration just admitted to releasing thousands of illegal immigrants convicted of violent crimes.” An on-screen quote from the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) appears to support this claim. The text reads, “Illegal immigrants released: ‘435,719 convicted criminals.'”
However, as CNN and others have pointed out, the ICE letter does not say that all immigrants with criminal convictions have been released under the Biden-Harris administration. The data covers people who entered the country over several decades, including during Trump’s own administration, and the letter does not provide a breakdown by administration.
ICE’s letter also does not say that all of these people have been “released” (many are still serving their sentences in prisons or jails) or that they are all “illegal immigrants.” The list includes both illegal immigrants and those who committed crimes after entering the country legally.
