The Sunday Read: ‘Their Son’s Death Was Devastating. Then Politics Made It Worse.’
The Daily
11/03/24
•35m
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A sheriff’s deputy arrived at Nathan and Danielle Clark’s front door on the outskirts of Springfield, Ohio, in September with the latest memento of what their son’s death had become. “I’m sorry that I have to show you this,” she said and handed them a flier with a picture of Aiden, 11, smiling at the camera after his last baseball game. It was the same image the Clarks had chosen for his funeral program and then made into Christmas ornaments for his classmates, but this time the photograph was printed alongside threats and racial slurs.
“Killed by a Haitian invader,” the flier read. “They didn’t care about Aiden. They don’t care about you. They are pieces of human trash that deserve not your sympathy, but utter scorn. Give it to them ... and then some.”
“They have no right to speak for him like this,” Danielle said. “It’s making me sick. There must be some way to stop it.”
This was the version of the country the Clarks and their two teenage children had encountered during the last year, ever since Aiden died in a school bus crash in August 2023 on the way to his first day of sixth grade. The crash was ruled an accident, caused by a legally registered Haitian immigrant who veered into the bus while driving without a valid license. But as the presidential campaign intensified, former President Donald Trump and his running mate, JD Vance, began to tell a different story.
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The Ad Campaign
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By the time it’s over, this year’s race for president will have cost at least $3.5 billion. The single biggest expense will be campaign ads.
Shane Goldmacher, a national political correspondent for The Times, discusses the story that each campaign has been using those ads to tell, 30 seconds at a time.
Guest: Shane Goldmacher, a national political correspondent for The New York Times.
Background reading:
- Donald J. Trump and the Republicans have bet big on anti-trans ads across the country.
- The Harris campaign’s recent Spanish-language advertising has highlighted an insult toward Puerto Rico at Mr. Trump’s rally in Madison Square Garden.
- Both parties are running ads that tell voters it’s OK to switch sides. “You can vote any way you want. And no one will ever know,” one says.
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