A campaign radio advertisement in Arkansas is urging black voters to support Republican Congressman French Hill, claiming "white Democrats will be lynching black folk again."
This is a real radio ad currently running in Arkansas in support of Republican Congressman French Hill on radio stations targeted to the African American community. I don't even have words to describe it. https://t.co/vpzt1nGPlc
The ad, which was paid for by a political action committee called Black Americans for the President's Agenda, compares Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh's hearing to a lynching.
Hill and Republicans "know that it's dangerous to change the presumption of innocence to a presumption of guilt, especially for black men," a woman says in the ad.
"If the Democrats can do that to a white justice of the Supreme Court with no evidence, no corroboration, and all of her witnesses including her best friend say it didn't happen, what will happen to our husbands, our fathers, or our sons when a white girls lies on them?" the woman says.
"Girl, white Democrats will be lynching black folk again," a second woman replies.
The first woman then says she has warned her son, "Don't be messin' around with that...if you get caught, she will cry rape."
The ad urges voters to support Hill "because we have to protect our men and boys."
"We can't afford to let white Democrats take us back to bad old days of race verdicts, life sentences, and lynchings when a white girl screams rape," the ad concludes.
After the ad hit the airwaves it quickly spread online, with some calling it overtly racist and saying it plays into "every angry black woman trope."
WHAT THE REPUBLICAN RACIST FUCKERY IS THIS https://t.co/iBAUxdCgAt
What fresh hell racist tripe bullshit is this? How many Black Americans For The President's Agenda (TM) are actually behind this? Disgusting throwing every angry black woman trope behind this. Garbage. https://t.co/ccHHEux4Mr
[offices of the firm that made this ad] “the congressman says...” [producer reads request] “...that he wants this to sound like a minstrel show.” https://t.co/sOtbxl2vm8
On Thursday, Hill condemned the ad, calling it "appalling."
Some may have heard an appalling ad on the radio. I condemn this outrageous ad in the strongest terms. I do not support that message, and there is no place in Arkansas for this nonsense.
"I condemn this outrageous ad in the strongest terms," he tweeted. "I do not support that message, and there is no place in Arkansas for this nonsense."
Hill did not respond to a request for comment from BuzzFeed News.
Hill's opponent, Democratic nominee Clarke Tucker, said Hill "will have to live with the kind of campaign they're running."
Rep. Hill & his allies will have to live with the kind of campaign they're running. This radio ad is disgraceful & has no place in our society. We won't let these shameful tactics distract us from our fight to stand up for the people in #AR02 on the critical issues in our lives. https://t.co/KErJAOdsel
"This radio ad is disgraceful & has no place in our society," said Tucker. "We won't let these shameful tactics distract us from our fight to stand up for the people in #AR02 on the critical issues in our lives."
Black Americans for the President's Agenda was founded in February by black conservative activist Vernon Robinson and is chaired by a Republican member of the West Virginia House of Delegates, Jill Upson.
The PAC has raised a total of $142,706 and spent $90,199 of it, according to Open Secrets.
Robinson has run for Congress in North Carolina several times and lost, according to Ballotpedia.
Robinson and Upson did not respond to requests for comment.
In his own campaign ad from 2006, which riffed on the classic TV show The Twilight Zone, Robinson railed against "Islamic extremists," gay marriage, abortion, secular education, and "the aliens...[who] came across our unguarded Mexican border by the millions."