Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden called on Fox News to reject a new Trump 2020 campaign ad that deceptively suggests the former vice president pushed out a Ukraine prosecutor to protect his son, Hunter, from a corruption investigation — a completely baseless claim.

The 30-second ad, which debuted online last week, has been condemned as a “disgrace” and “propaganda” by fellow 2020 Democratic rivals and traffics in the same talking points that President Donald Trump has used to defend himself against the impeachment inquiry into his Ukraine-whistleblower scandal.

“Though the Trump campaign is prepared to fabricate outright lies, your station’s airwaves should not be used to disseminate them,” Biden campaign manager Greg Schultz wrote in a letter to the cable network, according to Politico. “We are putting you on notice about the absolute falsity of the advertisement’s claims, and we expect that you will reject it.”

Fox News rejected the Biden campaign team’s request.

“We are not in the business of censoring ads from candidates on either side of the aisle,” a Fox News spokesperson said in a statement to Mediaite. “Vice President Joe Biden has a standing invitation to appear on any of our platforms.”

Previously, the network has aired ads from Democratic presidential candidate Tom Steyer which accused Trump of committing crimes. Trump’s ad likewise alleges criminal behavior, albeit in totally baseless fashion.

CNN announced on Thursday that it will refuse to air the ad because of concerns about the false claims it contains.

This move by the Biden campaign comes on the heels of its request this past weekend that news networks ban further appearances of President Donald Trump’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, because of his consistent pattern of lying on air about the Bidens.

from Mediaite https://ift.tt/2LKpJvG