Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images

Midway through Thursday night’s Democratic debate on ABC, the channel aired a startling ad from a Republican political action committee. The ad, purchased by the New Faces PAC, starts out with a with a still of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s official congressional portrait — then sets it on fire:

The Republican New Faces PAC debuted by burning @AOC's face. pic.twitter.com/JFowetC7Nd — CPD Action (@CPDAction) September 13, 2019

The next scene shows a heap of skulls, and then cuts to Elizabeth Heng, a failed Republican candidate for California’s 16th congressional district. In ominous tones, Heng, the daughter of a Cambodian dissident, recalls the violence of the Khmer Rouge regime and warns against socialism in the U.S. The implication is clear: Ocasio-Cortez, a democratic socialist, represents a real and serious threat to the U.S., and if she and other leftists grow their power, mass murder is inevitable.

It’s a uniquely odious example of an old conservative habit. But that habit isn’t merely obnoxious — it puts the congresswoman at risk, too. Ocasio-Cortez, along with other members of her left-leaning congressional “squad,” already receives a high number of death threats; by allowing this PAC to air an ad that links her to genocidal violence in Cambodia, ABC grants undeserved legitimacy to ideas that make her a target.

Further complicating matters, the Freedom From Religion Foundation — a legal advocacy group that promotes separation of church and state — claims the channel rejected two of its proposed ads for the same night. And later in its broadcast, ABC aired an ad funded by NumbersUSA, an anti-immigration organization. Political Research Associations has reported that the group’s president, Roy Beck, once spoke to a white nationalist group and formerly was associated with The Social Contract, a journal that puts out what the Southern Poverty Law Center has called “race-baiting articles penned by white nationalists.”

On Twitter, Ocasio-Cortez has already responded, noting the irony of a Republican PAC doing outreach to minorities by smearing a woman of color:

Republicans are running TV ads setting pictures of me on fire to convince people they aren’t racist.



Life is weird! — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) September 13, 2019

Know that this wasn’t an ad for young conservatives of color - that was the pretense.



What you just watched was a love letter to the GOP’s white supremacist case. https://t.co/zvp1EB02c5 — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) September 13, 2019

Others expressed shock at the ad, and ABC’s decision to run it:

Trump officials and GOP senators were asked to leave a few restaurants and we had a whole news cycle about a lack of 'civility' on the part of the left.



The GOP, on the other hand, just set @AOC's face on fire.#bothsides https://t.co/zzJrNNCIZb — Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) September 13, 2019

This ad is abhorrent. Literally burning @AOC and promoting violence against a sitting member of congress. How did you let this on the air @ABCNetwork? #DemDebate https://t.co/IIasHeoyXc — UltraViolet (@UltraViolet) September 13, 2019

This is the ad @ABC allowed to run during tonight's #DemDebate: right-wing propaganda depicting @AOC set on fire, burning into images of skeletons.



This is right out of the white nationalist playbook. No news network should be profiting off such hatred.pic.twitter.com/11g7k6hf3c — Bend the Arc: Jewish Action (@jewishaction) September 13, 2019

The PAC’s ad was ostensibly meant to counter the argument that the GOP is a racist political party. But they’ll need to do more than put Elizabeth Heng in front of camera to make that argument. If they’re truly concerned about the party’s image, they haven’t exactly done their cause any favors.