Seth Meyers Condemns NBC For Airing Anti-Immigration Ad

Seth Meyers called out the television network his own show airs on, the Huffington Post is reporting. On Late Night With Seth Meyers, Meyers discussed Donald Trump’s anti-immigration ad that aired during Sunday Night Football. The ad implies that the Central American migrants coming to the U.S. border are criminals by drawing a direct comparison to immigrants who are currently on death row. The ad particularly put a focus on Luis Bracamontes, a Mexican citizen who is on death row after killing two police officers in 2014.

“Any network should’ve seen it for what it was and turned it down right away,” Meyers told his audience. “But unfortunately, not everyone did.”

Meyers referred to Trump’s ad as “racist fear-mongering” and showed a clip of Trump saying he had no knowledge of the ad, despite the ad ending with “I’m Donald Trump and I approve this message.” Meyers then went on to deliver a humorous monologue about Trump’s latest statements on his intention to end birthright citizenship. NBC ended up pulling Trump’s ad on Monday, November 5, after severe backlash. CNN, on the other hand, rejected the ad outright. After Donald Trump Jr. tweeted a message scolding CNN for their decision not to air the ad, the official CNN Communications Twitter account responded that the network “has made it abundantly clear in its editorial coverage that this ad is racist.”

It is outrageous what the Democrats are doing to our Country. Vote Republican now! https://t.co/0pWiwCHGbh pic.twitter.com/2crea9HF7G

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 31, 2018

As for NBC, they released a statement saying they noticed the “insensitive nature of the ad” after “further review.” Fox News also followed NBC’s lead and stated they were going to no longer air the ad. Still, Trump is reportedly continuing to push the ad out on social media in hopes of encouraging people to vote Republican rather than Democrat. According to the Huffington Post, many people in opposition to the ad have pointed out that Bracamontes, the criminal mentioned in the ad, was deported under Democratic President Bill Clinton. Bracamontes returned to the United Stated under Republican President George W. Bush’s administration. When asked about the advertisement appearing offensive, Trump was not fazed by the criticism.

“Well, a lot of things are offensive,” Trump said. “Your questions are offensive a lot of times.”

Trump has had a strong stance on immigration throughout his political career and has recently sent out 5,200 troops to the United States southern border to prevent the caravan from entering the country, even though the caravan is allegedly still hundreds of miles away and won’t close in on the border for weeks. As for Meyers, he has a history of being vocal about more left-leaning viewpoints, especially while as a cast member on Saturday Night Live. Though his own network may take a different position than him, Meyers still maintains the same political values.