Fox News said Monday it has stopped airing the controversial political ad paid for by President Donald Trump’s campaign, which likens members of the Central American migrant caravan to a man convicted of killing police officers in the U.S.
The Trump-friendly network’s decision comes after CNN made headlines on Saturday for refusing to air it and after NBC came under fire for running it during prime time on Sunday night.
“Upon further review, Fox News pulled the ad yesterday and it will not appear on either Fox News Channel or Fox Business Network,” ad sales president Marianne Gambelli said in a statement.
The 30-second spot includes footage of Luis Bracamontes, an undocumented immigrant from Mexico citizen sentenced to death in April for killing two police officers in California in 2014.
The ad compares his behavior to members of the caravan, which mostly comprises adults and children who plan to legally seek asylum at ports of entry into the U.S. The video then urges viewers to “vote Republican” before a voiceover from Trump says he approves the message.
CNN called out the ad as blatantly “racist” in replying to critical tweets from Donald Trump Jr., the president’s eldest son, who charged that the network would “only run fake news and won’t talk about real threats.”
Fox’s decision follows NBC saying earlier Monday that it had erred in running the ad.
“After further review, we recognize the insensitive nature of the ad and have decided to cease airing it across our properties as soon as possible,” said Joe Benarroch, a spokesperson for the NBC advertising sales department.
Facebook said Monday it will remove the ad from its platforms.
Despite the backlash, the Trump campaign shows no signs of backing down on the ad. Trump’s campaign manager, Brad Parscale, unleashed an angry tweet about the ad pull shortly after Fox News, Trump’s favorite media outlet, made its announcement, though he did not single out the network.
The ad is Trump’s latest effort to rouse fear about the migrant caravan in the days ahead of the midterm elections. Last week, he announced he was sending more than 5,200 troops to the U.S.’s southern border despite the caravan being weeks away and posing no known threat.