A newspaper in Miami, Florida is under fire after running several pro-Trump political ads filled with racial slurs.
The full-page ad, which ran on the back cover of the Miami New Times’ June 13–19 print edition, features several uncensored uses of the n-word, as well as a misleading quote of President Biden using the slur in 1985.
The quote was taken from a 1985 hearing in which then-Senator Biden quoted racist remarks made by a state legislator during a redistricting process in Louisiana. At the time, Biden was questioning William Bradford Reynolds, a nominee for deputy attorney general, who oversaw the redistricting process.
During the hearing, Biden read verbatim from a memo highlighting racist language used by lawmakers to support the redistricting plan. “We already have a n----- mayor, we don’t need any more n-----big shots!” Biden quoted a lawmaker as saying, before arguing that Reynolds had ignored racist comments by lawmakers and allowed them to gerrymander Louisiana’s congressional districts in a way that underrepresented Black residents.
A video of Biden’s comments also resurfaced during the 2020 election, with some social media users sharing edited clips to claim Biden used the n-word, and omitting the context.
It’s not clear who paid for the ad in the Miami New Times. However, it appeared to have been placed by “Blacks for Trump”, a right-wing group that’s often spotted behind the former president at his campaign rallies.
Maurice Symonette, who founded the group, told Axios that he stands by the ad, which also featured his and Trump’s mugshots side-by-side.
“I’ve heard a lot of white men quoting people but when they get to that word, every decent white person says ‘the n-word,’” he said.
Symonette, formerly Maurice Woodside, once belonged to the black supremacist Nation of Yahweh cult, which was accused of plotting 14 murders, according to the Miami Herald. Symonette was charged with conspiracy to commit two murders but later acquitted, the Herald reported.
Miami New Times’ publisher, Adam Simon, told Axios that the ad was “unacceptable” and that it should not have run in the newspaper.
“The bottom line is that it was gross and unacceptable oversight by our local leadership and I take 100% responsibility for allowing that language to run in an ad,” he said.
He said that he did not see the ad before publication because it came in past the deadline for the print day.
The Miami publication has now said that it will no longer take ads so late that they can’t be reviewed. “Naturally, had I seen it, which I should have, I would not have let it run as is,” Simon said.
Copies of the issue remained available in news boxes on Wednesday. A digital edition of the New Times did not show the advertisement on Thursday.
The Independent has contacted The Miami New Times for comment.
