President Donald Trump's reelection campaign released an ad tying thousands of migrants fleeing violence in Central America to Luis Bracamontes, an undocumented immigrant convicted of killing two Sacramento sheriff's deputies in 2014. | Rogelio V. Solis/AP photo elections NBC, Fox, Facebook pull Trump immigration ad that CNN called 'racist'

NBC, Fox and Facebook all said Monday they were pulling an immigration-related ad from President Donald Trump's reelection campaign that CNN had previously called "racist" and declined to run.

The ad ties thousands of migrants fleeing violence in Central America to Luis Bracamontes, an undocumented immigrant who was convicted of killing two Sacramento sheriff's deputies in 2014. It was released as Trump continues to express frustration over a "caravan" of Central American migrants heading toward the United States to seek asylum.


Trump was criticized for racial stereotyping when he tweeted a longer version of the ad Wednesday. Despite that dust-up, NBC aired the shorter form of the ad, which omitted a false claim that Democrats had allowed Bracamontes to stay in the U.S., over the weekend in the middle of "Sunday Night Football."

"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," an NBCUniversal spokesperson said Monday.

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CNN had already said publicly that it declined to air the ad.

"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's communications team tweeted Saturday.

And others followed suit Monday. Marianne Gambelli, president of ad sales for Fox News, said in a statement that the network, which Trump regularly spends hours watching, had pulled the ad a day earlier.

Facebook also pulled the ad, declaring it in violation of its policies against sensational content, a Facebook spokesman said. Another Trump ad mentioning both the "caravan" and Bracamontes remained on the social network Monday, however. Facebook did not immediately respond to a request to explain the discrepancy.

Trump stood by his campaign's ads Monday when asked about the controversy by reporters. At a campaign rally in Indiana on Monday night, the president referred to another person in his ad who said he was going to the United States seeking a pardon for murder, adding, “This was one of the people in the caravan.“

"We have a lot of ads, and they certainly are effective based on the numbers that we're seeing," he said earlier Monday afternoon. Asked if the ad in question was offensive, he replied: "Well, a lot of things are offensive."

But his 2020 campaign manager quickly complained about the decisions to drop the ad.

"So, @NBCNews @CNN @facebook have chosen to stand with those ILLEGALLY IN THIS COUNTRY. Instead of standing with LEGAL IMMIGRANTS and those that follow our laws," Brad Parscale tweeted Monday, without mentioning Fox News.

"The #FakeNewsMedia and #PaloAltoMafia are trying to control what you see and how you think. STOP THE CARAVAN!" Parscale wrote.

Trump has made immigration a key talking point in this year's midterms, to the chagrin of Republicans who hoped he would focus more on the booming economy. His administration has approved sending 5,200 U.S. troops to the southern border to deter the migrants — who are expected to seek asylum, which is legal — and Trump said he could increase that number by up to 15,000.

Michael Calderone and Cristiano Lima contributed to this report.