Fox News takes down Trump’s racist ad

The ad was taken down by the company on Monday after receiving airtime for about a dozen times on Fox News and Fox Business.

“Upon further review, Fox News pulled the ad yesterday and it will not appear

on either Fox News Channel or Fox Business Network,” Advertisement Sales President Marianne Gambelli told CNN.

The controversial ad urged Americans to take a tougher stance against illegal immigration by voting against Democrats in the upcoming US midterm elections, blaming Democratic policies for illegal immigration and police killings.

The short video segment, however, heavily relied on racist stereotypes of Latin Americans by invoking the image of Bracamontes, a previously deported convict who had killed two sheriff's deputies in the state of California in 2014.

While the ad was initially denied any air time by CNN and was

taken down by NBC and Facebook after being featured for several days, Fox's decision matters particularly given the channel's close support for the Republican president.

Some observers questioned whether the provocative ad is any different from the channel's usual talking points.

Later today, Trump defended the ad's "offensive content" after being questioned by journalists, saying that the ads had been receiving a high number of views.

"A lot

of things are offensive, your questions are offensive a lot of times," added the president.

The recent controversy comes amid what some have dubbed as the "most racist" election in modern US history, with many seeing a stake in the identity-politics debate that has taken over the country.

Americans will elect lawmakers for all 435 seats in the House of Representatives and 35 seats of the 100 seats in the Senate in addition to numerous other state-related and local seats on November 6.

According to some political pundits and Trump, himself, the elections may determine the presidency's survival.

KD