The Democratic National Committee on Saturday launched a campaign in Atlanta against former President Donald Trump just hours before the GOP candidate is set to arrive in the city.
On the mobile billboard of the arena Trump is scheduled to speak at, the DNC played a video of Trump’s previous controversial comments, some of which have been labeled as racist.
The Hill received an exclusive look at the ad, which is just over one minute. The ad includes some of Trump’s most noteworthy comments, such as when he called African countries “s–thole countries” and said violent protests with white supremacists in Charlottesville, Va., had “very fine people, on both sides.”
In one of the clips, MSNBC’s Joy Reid can be heard reporting on Trump’s comments calling for the death penalty for the Exonerated Five before the ad cuts to Trump himself saying, “I want society to hate ‘em.”
The clip is followed by a quote from Trump in his former president of Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City John O’Donnell’s 1991 book: “I’ve got Black guys counting my money! I hate it. The only kind of people I want counting my money are short guys that wear yarmulkes every day. I think that the guy is lazy. And it’s probably not his fault, because laziness is a trait in blacks.”
But it’s not only Trump’s words that are blasted on the mobile billboard.
Another clip shows Sen. Lindsey Graham’s (R-S.C.) harsh criticism of Trump before the 2016 election in which Graham called Trump a “race-baiting, xenophobic, religious bigot.”
The new ad comes after the former president faced widespread criticism for remarks he made about Vice President Harris’s identity in Chicago this week at the National Association of Black Journalists’s annual convention.
A clip from the convention of ABC News’s Rachel Scott confronting Trump over some of his previous comments before asking the former president why Black voters should cast their ballots for him is the last video in the ad.
It ends with the words “They shouldn’t” across a black screen.
“At the NABJ this week, Donald Trump once again demonstrated a truth that Black voters across the nation have known for years — he doesn’t care about the wellbeing of our communities or truly listening to the issues that matter most to us. He once again peddled racist rhetoric and spewed nonsensical lies about his presidency,” Marcus W. Robinson, senior spokesperson for the DNC, told The Hill in a statement.
“If Trump’s embarrassing words this week weren’t insulting enough, let’s remember that Donald Trump was a disaster as president for Black communities, and another Trump presidency would threaten to erase the historic gains the Biden-Harris administration made for Black communities, including a historically low unemployment rate, narrowing the racial wealth gap, and booming growth in Black wealth,” he added. “Black Americans deserve better than another four years of Trump.”
Harris, who rallied in Atlanta on Tuesday with hip hop superstars Megan Thee Stallion and Quavo, became the official Democratic nominee on Friday after securing enough votes in a virtual roll call. She is expected to announce her vice presidential pick in the coming days.
Both Harris and Trump are desperately courting Black voters, though some experts say the former president’s comments at NABJ this week have set him back with the demographic.
The City of Atlanta is home to 465,230 Black Americans, or nearly 52 percent of that city’s population, according to 2020 data from the Atlanta Regional Commission. In 2020, Georgia went blue and helped secure Democrats control of the Senate and the White House.