Facebook Twitter Tumblr Close Skip to main content
A Project of The Annenberg Public Policy Center

“Reprehensible Misrepresentation”

Summary
Conservative activist Floyd G. Brown, who had a hand in the 1988 "Willie Horton" attack ad, is seeking funds to show a new spot accusing Obama of being "weak" on Chicago gang killers in 2001 and suggesting he’d be weak on terrorism, too.  Brown bases the claim on Obama’s vote against a bill to make gang killers automatically eligible for the death penalty.
 
We find that the ad misses the mark. The anti-gang activist who sponsored the death-penalty bill tells FactCheck.org that she doesn’t consider Obama weak on crime despite his opposition to her proposal.