After PolitiFact found that Donald Trump’s first television advertisement uses footage of immigrants pouring over the Morocco-Spain border instead of the U.S.-Mexico border, the Trump campaign told NBC News that it chose the footage deliberately.
Monday, Trump released his first TV ad of the 2016 cycle that included a narrator saying Trump will “stop illegal immigration by building a wall on our southern border that Mexico will pay for” while showing footage of people running across a border. (VIDEO: Trump Releases First TV Ad To Air In Key Primary States)
When questioned about the discrepancy, Trump’s campaign manager Corey Lewandowski told NBC reporter Katy Tur, “No shit it’s not the Mexican border but that’s what our country is going to look like if we don’t do anything.” Lewandowski later added, “If we don’t build a wall.”
In a statement provided by Trump campaign spokeswoman Hope Hicks, the Trump campaign stood by the ad, insisting, “The use of this footage was intentional and selected to demonstrate the severe impact of an open border and the very real threat Americans face if we do not immediately build a wall and stop illegal immigration. The biased mainstream media doesn’t understand, but Americans who want to protect their jobs and their families do.”
TRUMP CAMPAIGN MNGR: "No shit its not the Mexican border but thats what our country is going to look like if we don't do anything."
— Katy Tur (@KatyTurNBC) January 4, 2016
It was "intentional". New official statement from the Trump campaign: pic.twitter.com/uPzaG5zL2l
— Katy Tur (@KatyTurNBC) January 4, 2016