GOP Rep. Hill disavows ad with racist stereotypes in support of his campaign

An Arkansas Republican is disavowing a racist radio ad in support of his campaign that features caricatures of black women and claims white Democrats will be “lynching black folk again.”

Two women featured in the ad, paid for by the Black Americans for the President’s Agenda political action committee, discuss the sexual assault allegations against U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh and accuse Democrats of trying to change the presumption of innocence.

The women speak in racist tropes and colloquialisms attached to black women.

“Honey I always told my son, don’t be messing around with that,” one women in the ad says, referring to white women. “If you get caught, she will cry rape.”

At the end of the ad, the women say they are voting for Rep. French Hill, R-Ark., and the Republicans to protect “our men and boys” from white Democrats. The ad claims white Democrats want to go back to “race verdicts” and lynchings when a “white girl screams rape.”

Hill released a statement Thursday denouncing the ad.

“I condemn this outrageous ad in the strongest terms,” Hill said in a statement. “There’s no place in Arkansas for this nonsense.”

Hill’s Democratic opponent, Clarke Tucker, tweeted Thursday that the incumbent “will have to live with the kind of campaign” he and his allies are running.

“This radio ad is disgraceful & has no place in our society,” Tucker tweeted. “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.”

Vernon Robinson, the treasurer of the PAC, told NBC News on Thursday he disagreed with the characterization that the ad featured racist stereotypes.

Robinson said the PAC paid for ads supporting GOP candidates and opposing the “ridiculous Me Too movement” in Little Rock, Arkansas, as well as St. Louis and Kansas City, Missouri. He said the Democrats were “screaming like stuffed pigs.”

“Anytime the left is upset with my ads, it means they don’t have the time to attack Republican campaign managers, to run Republicans out of restaurants,” Johnson said.

Sexual assault survivors and advocates vehemently opposed the confirmation of Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court after three women accused him of sexual assault during his young teen years. President Donald Trump, who has been accused of sexual assault by a number of women, mocked Kavanaugh accuser Dr. Christine Blasey Ford to his supporters at a campaign rally and has continued to support his appointee.