Part of The power and potential of Latino voters,from The Highlight, Vox’s home for ambitious stories that explain our world.
The distortion begins by using Joe Biden’s own words against him: “I’m going to go down as one of the most progressive presidents in American history,” the then-presidential candidate says at the start of the video. Emblazoned across Biden for those three seconds is a Spanish translation of his statement: “Seré uno de los presidentes más progresistas de la historia Americana.” “Progresistas” — or progressives, in English — remains onscreen.
But the next four people to invoke the word in this 30-second campaign ad for Donald Trump’s 2020 reelection effort were meant to inspire fear: Hugo Chávez, the socialist former leader of Venezuela, his successor Nicolás Maduro, the Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, and the now-president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro. As the spot closes, the word remains — but now it’s followed by “progresistas=socialista.”
Biden, of course, is no socialist. And this ad, published on YouTube in August 2020, was a sampling of one of the Trump campaign’s most successful political messages aimed at Latino voters. Painting Biden as a radical leftist by invoking the specter of Latin American socialism struck at the immigrant heritage of many voters in South Florida who had fled those countries. But the ad is also an example of a larger phenomenon Latino communities continue to face: the spread of misleading, exaggerated, and false...
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