A Republican campaign ad in Arizona that has been airing since the beginning of the year was abruptly yanked from television this week due to video of illegal border crossings.
Karrin Taylor Robson, a Republican immigration hawk running for governor of Arizona, was notified Monday by FS1, a subsidiary of Fox Sports, that her ad could no longer air until she proved migrants shown crossing the border in it were in fact illegal immigrants. The channel informed her campaign that it must supply "an affidavit that the ad was filmed along the border, as well as proof of the citizenship status of any individuals depicted," she said in a statement.
Taylor Robson, one of the frontrunners for the Republican nomination, said the decision was "nuts."
"The station expects Arizonans to believe individuals that our cameras captured crossing the border nowhere near a legal port of entry, and being taken into custody by Border Patrol, may have been American citizens? This is nuts," Taylor Robson said.
The ad features what the Taylor Robson campaign says is real footage from Arizona's border with Mexico. The footage shows immigrants crossing the border in the background as she says the United States is being invaded.
"Behind me are illegal immigrants that were just dropped off on the Mexico side of the border," Taylor Robson says in the ad. "And here they are, crossing into America. The invasion is well underway."
FS1's decision follows similar decisions by other networks to censor Republican messaging. NBC News refused to air an ad from Republican congressman Michael Waltz (Fla.) that calls out Olympic sponsors for associating themselves with the Beijing 2022 Winter Games without calling out the country's human rights abuses.
FS1 did not respond to a request for comment on Taylor Robson's ad.