Two of Hillary Clinton’s most widely viewed advertisements misleadingly depict opponent Donald Trump yelling the word "fuck" when he actually censored himself.
In an ad called "Role Models," Clinton plays controversial quotations from Trump spliced with images of children watching television. In one of the clips, Trump tells a rally, "And you can tell them to go fuck themselves." The ad bleeps out the F-word to make it seem like he said it out loud, but during the actual speech, Trump only mouthed it.
The Clinton campaign also used the "Go fuck themselves" quote in another ad called "Just One" questioning if Trump had "steady leadership."
Here is the full version of Trump’s statement during a February rally in New Hampshire. He says, "You can tell them to go," then mouths the word "fuck," before saying, "themselves."
Trump voiced an objection to a different outlet unnecessarily bleeping him in February when Bloomberg’s Mark Halperin did a focus group with South Carolina voters. Halperin showed them a string of clips of Trump using vulgarities, and the montage also bleeped out Trump’s silent F-bomb at the New Hampshire rally. Several people in the focus group voiced disdain for his seemingly foul language.
Trump tweeted that the clip of him was unfair after seeing Halperin, a frequent MSNBC guest, showing the focus group on Morning Joe.
.@MarkHalperin showed a focus group on @Morning_Joe me using a very bad word. I never said the word, left an open blank. Please apologize!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 11, 2016