An insidious radio ad campaign has reportedly taken root in some of the most prominent media markets of this mid-term cycle, blaming it Joe Biden‘s government to foment “anti-white bigotry”. “Since when is anti-white racism okay?” asks a narrator, according to a recording obtained by Politico, before falsely accusing the White House of “putting white people last for COVID relief funds” and offering disaster relief “to non-white citizens first.” .
A disclosure at the end of the radio spot states that it is funded by America First Legal (AFL), an organization headed by none other than Stephen Miller, the former anti-immigration Czar of the White House donald trump, who, according to Politico, quietly pushed these ads to amplify white grievances in parts of Georgia and in Tallahassee, Florida.
The ad accuses Democrats of blocking “access to medicines based on race” and concludes that explicit anti-white policies are rife in both the private and public sectors. “Progressive corporations, airlines, and universities all openly discriminate against white Americans,” the narrator notes. “Racism is always wrong. The left’s anti-white bigotry must stop. We all have the right to equal treatment before the law.”
Given Miller’s past history of promoting white nationalist talking points and as the architect of some of the Trump administration’s harshest policies, such as banning immigrants from Muslim-majority countries and separating migrant children from their parents, his ongoing campaign to empower aggrieved white voters encourage Georgia deserves a special mention. Republicans held the state’s seats in the US Senate for most of the 2000s, until Democrats flipped both seats and Biden won the state in 2020. This victory was due in part to both an increase in black turnout in the Atlanta area and, in general, an increase in Democratic votes among college grad, older, and affluent voters in the increasingly diverse Atlanta suburbs. To retake the Senate, the GOP will likely need Herschel Walker, the embattled Republican challenging the Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock, to reverse the recent blueshift in Georgia.
Miller’s group isn’t the only Trump-affiliated organization toying with racist tropes. During prime time of this month’s MLB playoff games, Citizens for Sanity — a PAC that OpenSecrets says has three former Trump assistants on its board who are also involved with Miller’s AFL — aired an ad claiming so John Fetterman, the Democratic Senate candidate in Pennsylvania, is fighting to “put predators back on the streets.” The clip also includes a superimposed image by Fetterman over security footage of a man firing a pistol into a street. In its other Pennsylvania ads, the group claims that “Joe Biden and the Democrats” have turned the state into “a hell of violence, bloodshed and death” and backs an alleged murder in a Willie Horton-style attack Blame on the Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasnercriminal justice reforms. In Arizona, the group covered the crucial Senate race between Democratic senators Mark Kelly and Republicans Blake Masters with ads accusing Biden and Kelly of turning the state into a “Third World country” by allegedly allowing “drug dealers,” “sex traffickers,” and millions of “illegal immigrants” to move freely.
Miller founded America First Legal in 2021 with other senior Trump White House officials, including the former chief of staff Mark Meadows and former acting attorney general Matthew Whitaker on its Board of Directors; The group was formed with a mission to challenge the Democrat and Biden administration’s agenda in court. “As our educational ads explain, racism is always wrong – no matter who it’s directed at.” Gene Hamilton, a vice president at America First Legal, told Politico about the radio ads. Many of the group’s efforts have involved undermining policies aimed at helping minorities, including a lawsuit against the New York state government for including race as a potential risk factor in COVID-19 guidelines and another that aimed at federal aid for non-white farmers. Recent radio spots follow a similar script – this time in a swing state.