CNN has decided not to accept an ad for President Trump’s re-election campaign.
The 30-second spot, entitled Biden Corruption, attacks the network’s talent, including Chris Cuomo, Don Lemon and Jim Acosta. MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow is also disparaged in the ad.
The aforementioned quartet are referred to as “media lapdogs” who are allegedly falling in line with Democratic party efforts to “steal” the 2020 election from the sitting president.
None of this has been proven.
“CNN is rejecting the ad, as it does not meet our advertising standards,” a CNN spokesperson told TVNewser. “Specifically, in addition to disparaging CNN and its journalists, the ad makes assertions that have been proven demonstrably false by various news outlets, including CNN.”
The spot also includes unproven criminal allegations about the Biden family’s business dealings with Ukraine.
The president promoted the spot on Twitter last week and it has received nearly 12 million views, as of publication time.
I AM DRAINING THE SWAMP! pic.twitter.com/U7WxKrO6Kx
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 27, 2019
The Daily Beast was first to report the news that CNN had rejected the ad.
Recent Trump re-election campaign ads have caused headaches for TV news networks. In November 2018, Fox News joined NBCU in pulling a controversial spot from all network programming.
In the ad, which aired around the time of the midterm elections, Pres. Trump ties an undocumented Mexican immigrant who was convicted of murdering two Sacramento sheriff’s deputies in 2014, to the thousands of migrants in the caravan, even though there is no known connection between the two.
CNN never aired the spot in the first place, referring to it as “racist.”
CNN has made it abundantly clear in its editorial coverage that this ad is racist. When presented with an opportunity to be paid to take a version of this ad, we declined. Those are the facts. 🍎
— CNN Communications (@CNNPR) November 3, 2018