Mike Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York City and contender for the Democratic presidential nomination, released an anti-Trump campaign advertisement that included footage of caged migrants in 2014 — during the Obama era.
The Bloomberg campaign released an ad that was meant to highlight unflattering events that have occurred during the Trump administration, such as the white nationalist march in Charlottesville, Virginia, the aftermath of a Florida school shooting, the Brett Kavanaugh hearings, and immigration enforcement at the U.S.-Mexico border.
“America demanded change and change is what we got,” a narrator said in the ad, which then led to a montage of footage, supposedly all taken during the Trump presidency.
WATCH:
Donald Trump said he was going to bring change to this country.
He did.#SuperBowl pic.twitter.com/4vcIycilow
— Mike Bloomberg (@MikeBloomberg) February 3, 2020
The campaign took direct aim at the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement measures, clipping images of Border Patrol agents doing their job and featuring footage of detained migrants. However, a review by the Daily Caller News Foundation found that one still image used in the ad was taken in 2014 — during the Obama administration.
Bloomberg Campaign Ad. Screenshot
The DCNF compared this image to a photo taken by Ross D. Franklin for The Associated Press in June 2014. The picture, which the DCNF obtained from Getty Images, was taken inside a Customs and Border Protection facility in Nogales, Arizona. Franklin’s picture is featured below:
NOGALES, AZ – JUNE 18: Detainees sleep and watch television in a holding cell where hundreds of mostly Central American immigrant children are being processed and held at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Nogales Placement Center on June 18, 2014, in Nogales, Arizona. (Photo by Ross D. Franklin-Pool/Getty Images)
A simple comparison of the two images can prove that they are, in fact, the same.
For example, the crossed legs of the individual laying down in the Bloomberg photo is the same as the crossed-legged individual seen in the middle of Franklin’s photo. The placing of the three mats near the head of the individual are stacked in the exact same position, as well.
In the background of both images, one individual with a black shirt is seen sitting next to others with white shirts. Additionally, a row of five individuals with white shirts are seen sitting together, their backs turned to the camera, at a table in both images. (RELATED: The Hill Slaps Obama-Era Photo Of Kids In Cages On Story About Trump Detention Centers)
The DCNF reached out to Julie Wood — a spokeswoman for the Bloomberg campaign — about the image, but did not receive a response.
This is not the first time Obama-era footage of caged migrants has been mistakenly attributed to the Trump administration. In an announcement about “inhumane treatment at the border” in July 2019, Democrats on the House Oversight Committee tweeted out the same Getty image. They deleted their tweet following online ridicule.
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