Texas AG Ken Paxton campaign ad mistakenly implicates Donald Trump

At the start of a video blaming Democrats for a laundry list of problems, a narrator says in an ominous baritone, “Do they know what they have done?”

Moments later, a free-for-all of migrants are shown charging at the U.S. border from Tijuana, Mexico — part of a tribute to “tireless conservative warrior” Ken Paxton, the embattled attorney general of Texas. The video debuted last month at the Texas GOP Convention and Paxton posted it on social media.

ALSO READ: ‘Journalistic dystopian nightmare’: Inside a Tennessee college media meltdown

Want more breaking political news? Click for the latest headlines at Raw Story.

It turns out, however, according to a Raw Story analysis, that the news footage used to show a “dangerous open border,” as the video called it, was actually from November 2018 — during the middle of Republican Donald Trump’s presidency.

That’s not the only misleading part of the two-minute, 37-second video, which uses a montage of images to evoke fear and blame, all in the name of Paxton, who survived 16 articles of impeachment last year. The Dallas Morning News said the Paxton video resembed "a trailer for an action-hero movie."

But the stock images used in the video — including a sad boy staring forlornly out a window — did not depict Texans, or even Americans.

Instead, they came from companies or artists representing a veritable United Nations of foreign countries.

The sad boy and the dejected face of a young girl? Switzerland.

Stacks of $100 bills? Spain.

A person representing the “liberal establishment” who’s putting $100 bills into an envelope? Ukraine.

The silhouette of a man walking onto a stage? Russia.

Paxton’s office did not immediately respond to Raw Story’s request for comment.

In the video, Paxton, who in March struck a deal that ended a federal criminal securities fraud case against him, is called “America’s most conservative attorney general” and “somebody who has been brave and strong.” Paxton spent part of April in New York attending the trial of former president Donald Trump, who was found guilty of 34 felony fraud counts.

ALSO READ: ‘That's the Kool-Aid’: Republicans triple down on Trump the morning after guilty verdict

The video charges that the “liberal establishment” wanted to eliminate Paxton because it “resents who they cannot control. They hatched a secret and shameful plan to overturn an election and take out our conservative champion.”

Actually, 70 percent of his fellow Republicans in the Republican-controlled state House voted to impeach Paxton on charges of bribery and corruption in trying to help a wealthy political donor.

The impeachment trial, which ended with the Republican-controlled Texas Senate acquitting Paxton, included testimony from a staff member that Paxton’s extramarital affair could make him vulnerable to bribery.

Among the people who listened to the testimony and adjudicated the case: Paxton’s wife, state Sen. Angela Paxton. They are still married. They were shown in a photo at the GOP Convention holding hands and waving to the crowd.

When it was his turn to speak, Paxton claimed migration was part of a plan to "steal another election."

He said, falsely, “The Biden Administration wants the illegals here to vote.”

Recommended Links: