In a new ad to run on "Fox & Friends," presidential candidate Julián Castro tells President Donald Trump that “innocent people were shot down … because they look like me.”
Castro, who is Mexican American, appears in the ad standing alone in an Iowa warehouse, directing his comments to Trump, who is known to be a fan of the show.
Castro connects racist comments Trump has made to the Aug. 3 shooting at a Walmart in El Paso that left 22 people dead and dozens wounded. Police say that the man accused in the attack posted an anti-Hispanic screed before the attack and that when he was arrested he said he wanted to kill Mexicans.
The screed mentions a "Hispanic invasion," which mirrors comments made by Trump.
In the ad, Castro says into the camera: “President Trump: You referred to countries as shitholes. You urged American congresswomen to ‘go to back where they came from.’ You called immigrants ‘rapists.”
“As we saw in El Paso, Americans were killed because you stoked the fire of racists. Innocent people were shot down because they look different from you, because they look like me, because they look like my family. Words have consequences. Ya basta!” he says, using the Spanish for "Enough!"
Castro, the only Latino in the 2020 field and a former HUD secretary, has intentionally stayed away from El Paso, telling an Iowa crowd that the border city did not need another presidential candidate there.
But he has been in a Twitter feud with Trump, after his twin brother and campaign chairman, Rep. Joaquín Castro, D-Texas, tweeted the names of companies and their owners in San Antonio, a majority Latino city where Julian was mayor, who are Trump donors a few days after the El Paso attack. The names and their contributions are publicly available. Trump criticized the brothers in a tweet in response.
Castro’s campaign said Castro’s ad also was in response to Trump’s criticism.
The campaign said the ad is running Wednesday on "Fox & Friends" in Bedminster, New Jersey, where the president is vacationing this week.
The camp spent $2,775 on the ad but will spend more to run it on digital sites.
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