Highway ads against ‘Alligator Alcatraz' went dark for a day. Who is to blame?
By Wednesday morning, the ads were live again. The source of the complaint remains in dispute.
Thomas Kennedy, who placed the digital ads for the Florida Immigrant Coalition, said a sales representative for Outfront Media identified Kevin Guthrie, the governor's emergency management director, as the source of a complaint that caused a pause in the display of digital ads that went up Monday on Interstate 95 and State Road 836.
The media office for Florida's Division of Emergency Management denied Kennedy's claim, which he first made in a social media post.
'This is false,' Stephanie Hartman, deputy director of communications for the agency, said in an email to the Miami Herald. Hartman had not responded to follow-up questions from the Herald as of late Wednesday afternoon. Representatives of Outfront were not available for comment Wednesday.
The Herald reviewed text messages from Kennedy showing an exchange with an Outfront sales executive that matches what Kennedy said the company told him.
'My manager had them taken down until we have approval. It should be back up tmrw morning if approved,' the sales executive wrote in a message Kennedy said he received Tuesday afternoon. 'Kevin Guthrie the executive director of Florida Division of Emergency Management is who reached out.'
The Herald was unable to interview the sales representative, and it's not known if the representative had direct knowledge of the source of the complaint, including whether the complaint came directly to Outfront or if it was relayed by another organization or individual.
The ads target Miami-Dade County's Democratic mayor, Daniella Levine Cava, with criticism that she isn't fighting the Florida detention facility, which was built on a county-owned airfield in the Everglades. Last month, Guthrie invoked the governor's authority to seize the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport from Miami-Dade, saying it was needed to address the ongoing state of emergency over immigration that DeSantis declared in 2023 while Joe Biden was president.
While Levine Cava has criticized the state facility, she hasn't taken action to retake the land or block construction. The Florida Immigrant Coalition ads urge the public to call the mayor's office and demand opposition.
'Tell Mayor Daniella Levine Cava and County Officials. Sue to stop the Everglades Detention Camp,' the ads read.
Kennedy said he heard from the Outfront representative Tuesday that there was a complaint that the ads contain inaccurate information. The ads, he said, came off the rotation for Outfront digital billboards that afternoon as the company researched the complaint. By Wednesday morning, the ads resumed.
'They were wonderful,' Kennedy said of Outfront. 'No complaints at all.'
Last year, the DeSantis administration threatened television stations with criminal charges over political ads supporting an abortion-rights ballot item the governor opposed. The state Department of Health claimed the ads broadcast harmful information to expectant mothers. A federal judge sided with the advocacy group airing the ads and supporting the item, which failed in the November elections.
While Kennedy said he didn't fault Outfront for how it handled the alleged state complaint about his group's ads, he said the events represent an attack on political speech.
'It's outrageous,' he said.
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Los Angeles Times
13 minutes ago
- Los Angeles Times
Democrats, playing defense on immigration, see a flicker of hope in new polls
WASHINGTON — Democrats may not agree on a solution to the country's broken immigration system — but President Trump's crackdown in Los Angeles has finally given them a line of attack. A flicker of hope has emerged from a brutal polling environment for the party suggesting the public is torn over Trump's blunt tactics in the immigration raids. The recent set of numbers have been an outlier on an issue that has otherwise been Trump's strongest since taking office. 'Absolutely, sentiment is shifting,' said G. Cristina Mora, a sociology professor at UC Berkeley. 'You're seeing more dissatisfaction and less agreeance with the president's strategy on immigration enforcement.' Polls released over the course of the last month found that, while a plurality of Americans still support Trump's overall approach to immigration, a majority believe that ICE has gone too far in its deportation efforts. And a new survey from Gallup found record public support for immigration, with public concern over crossings and support for mass deportations down significantly from a year ago. Top Democratic operatives are testing new talking points, hoping to press their potential advantage. 'The only place in the world that Donald Trump has put boots on the ground and deployed troops is in America,' Rahm Emanuel, a veteran party insider who served under President Obama before becoming mayor of Chicago, said this week. 'In L.A., they get troops on the ground. That's the Trump Doctrine. The only place he's actually put boots on the ground is in an American city.' In Washington, efforts to corral Democratic lawmakers behind a unified message on immigration have been futile ever since the party split over the Laken Riley Act, one of the first bills passed this term. The law allows ICE to detain undocumented immigrants that have faced charges, been arrested or convicted of nonviolent crimes such as burglary, theft, larceny, or shoplifting. But last month, when the shock of Trump's military deployment to Los Angeles was still fresh, every single Democrat in the Senate joined in a call on the White House to withdraw the troops. The letter had no power or influence, and was paid little attention as the nascent crisis unfolded. But it was a small victory for a party that saw a rare glimpse of political unity amid the chaos. Now, Democrats are hoping in part that Trump becomes a victim of his own success, with focus pulled from a quiet border that has seen record-low crossings since he resumed office. In the House, Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-Redlands) is leading an immigration working group, sources said, hoping to foster consensus in the party on how to proceed. 'The issue has gotten a little less hot, because the border is calmed down,' said one senior Democratic congressional aide, granted anonymity to speak candidly. 'Now the focus is raids, which is better terrain for us.' In May, Ruben Gallego, a Democrat who won a statewide race for his Senate seat in Arizona the same year that Trump handily won the state's presidential contest, released a vision for immigration policy. His proposal, titled 'Securing the Border and Ensuring Economic Prosperity,' received little fanfare. But the plan called for significant border security enhancements as well as an increase in visa and green card opportunities and a pathway to citizenship. It was a shot at the middle from an ambitious politician scheduled to visit Iowa, a crucial state in the presidential nominating contest, early next month. Yet it is unclear whether efforts by Gallego, a border state senator, to moderate the party's messaging on immigration will resonate with its base. Gallego was one of only 12 Democratic senators who voted for the Laken Riley Act. On the other side of the party, leaders like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, as well as Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for mayor of New York City, have focused their criticism on Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, with Mamdani calling the agency 'fascist' in its tactics. 'Democrats built the deportation machine that Trump has now turbocharged,' said Elliott Young, a history professor at Lewis & Clark College. 'The Democrats have an opportunity to stake out a humane and economically sensible position of encouraging immigration and welcoming our future citizens from around the world. The Republicans will always be better at cruelty and xenophobia, so better to leave that to them.' In her research at UC Berkeley, Mora still sees 'very strong support' across party lines for a pathway to citizenship, as well as for the constitutional preservation of birthright citizenship. But she is skeptical of an emerging strategy from a segment of Democrats, like Gallego, to adopt a prevailing Republican narrative of rampant criminal activity among immigrants while still promoting legal protections for the rest. Having it both ways will be difficult, she said. The Trump administration says that anyone who crossed the border without authorization is a criminal, regardless of their record once they got here. 'The Democratic Party is in this sort of place where, if you look at the Ruben Gallegos and that element, they're sort of ceding the narrative as they talk about getting rid of the criminals,' Mora said. 'Narratives of immigrants and criminality, despite all the data showing otherwise, are so tightly connected.' 'It's a tricky dance to make,' she added. Before Gallego's visit to Iowa, California Gov. Gavin Newsom visited South Carolina earlier this month, a transparent political stop in another crucial early primary state by a Democratic presidential contender. For Newsom, the politics of the raids in his home state have been unavoidable from the start. But the governor's speech in Bennettsville teased a political line of attack that appears to reflect shifting public opinion against ICE tactics. Linking the raids with Trump's response to the Los Angeles fires, Newsom noted the president was silent on the six-month anniversary of the devastating event, while that day ordering hundreds of federal troops into MacArthur Park in the heart of the city. 'Kids were taken away and hidden into the buildings, as they paraded around with American flags on horseback in military garb and machine guns — all masked,' Newsom said. 'Not one arrest was made.' 'He wanted to make a point,' Newsom added. 'Cruelty is the point.' The must-read: Newsom threatens Texas over power grab. He's blowing smoke The deep dive: Trump cuts to California National Weather Service leave 'critical' holes: 'It's unheard of'The L.A. Times Special: These California tech hubs are set to dominate the AI economyMore to come,Michael Wilner—Was this newsletter forwarded to you? Sign up here to get it in your inbox.
The Hill
13 minutes ago
- The Hill
Democrats seek to close social media gap with GOP, Trump
Democrats are grappling with how to up their game on social media following an election cycle where they acknowledged they were trounced by Republicans on platforms like X, Instagram, and YouTube. In recent focus groups and polls, Democrats have pressed for answers on why they failed to connect with voters on the platforms in 2024. So far, they have concluded it was both a message and messenger problem. But political observers say that Democrats were also missing the mark on social media. New polling by the Democratic super PAC Unite the Country, for example, revealed that social media is the third most popular way for voters to get their news. But Democratic spending on social media pales in comparison to the consistency and efficacy of Republican efforts online. 'There's a twofold problem,' said Democratic strategist Steve Schale, who is also the CEO of Unite the Country. 'I think they're light-years ahead of us. … But also, I think … we're not trusted by enough voters in enough parts of the country to be able to push back.' Elizabeth Sena, the Democratic pollster who conducted the survey for Unite the Country, said this disparity counts social media and other modes of communication, like cable TV and online news sites. Sena also said Unite the Country's poll showed the 'fractured environment' in which people receive information. 'People get information multiple different ways, and being able to access all of those different ways … is one of the things that Republicans did well,' she said. 'They hit all of the different channels.' President Trump's campaign was backed by an army of already established conservative influencers and podcasters, such as Tucker Carlson, Charlie Kirk and Theo Von, among many others, who successfully sold their broad audiences on Trump. Clips from their shows also circulated all over social media, allowing them to go viral — and reach new parts of the electorate in some cases. In the three-and-a-half years before November 2024, Republicans consistently outspent Democrats on social media until the party poured in $30 million right before Election Day, as revealed in a report last year by the Democratic super PAC Tech for Campaigns. The report showed that while Democratic campaigns typically outspent Republican efforts on social media, Republicans focused their funding more effectively on persuasion and mobilization content as opposed to fundraising pleas. Most recently, on the heels of the New York City mayoral primary, Democrats have pointed to Zohran Mamdani, the progressive upstart-turned-party nominee, as an example of how Democratic campaigns can leverage the power of social media. Mamdani, relying predominantly on Instagram and TikTok, clawed his way from obscurity to winning the primary. He amassed his own following of more than 4.5 million across the two platforms and collaborated with various social media influencers in New York City throughout his campaign. Political observers say the strategy put him on the radars of young, first-time voters and created an energy around his campaign that motivated voters to the polls. Mamdani drove home his message of affordability on social media and frequently tried to draw the contrast between himself and former Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D), his main competition in the race. In a 30-second video posted to his Instagram and TikTok accounts four days before Election Day, Mamdani could be seen walking with his sleeves rolled up surrounded by a crowd of his supporters delivering a message directly to voters. 'Everyone knows what's on the ballot this June 24th,' he said in the post, which has upward of 1.5 million views across Instagram and TikTok. 'It's whether we can actually afford the city that we call our home, and our campaign is fighting exactly for that.' 'We're fighting through the most amount of money that has ever been spent by a super PAC in New York City municipal history, and we're going to be able to overcome that because of you,' Mamdani continued, referring to Cuomo's establishment-backed campaign. 'One of the things he clearly did very effectively was take his message directly to voters and do it in creative and interesting ways,' Schale said. 'The concept of speaking directly to economic issues and finding creative ways to take that message directly to voters is something that all Democrats should learn from.' Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) — whose name has been mentioned as a possible presidential candidate in 2028 — has also emerged as a member of the Democratic camp whose social media presence has been among the few bright spots of the party, according to political observers who point to her authenticity and clear vision. Ocasio-Cortez and Mamdani 'are connecting with people by sort of leveraging the affordances of digital media,' said Adrienne Russell, a professor of communication at the University of Washington and a co-director of the school's Center for Journalism, Media, and Democracy. Russell said both Ocasio-Cortez and Mamdani 'also happen to have really clear messages and a vision for where we need to go as a country.' 'The Democrats that are sort of making a move to connect more with people are … young, and most of them have a very clear vision, and social media happens to be the place where they can connect with the public,' Russell added. 'For decades, we've been saying it's a social media thing when it's actually a people and politics thing, and social media is a tool.' Political observers say they think that Democrats are looking for a quick fix and an easy solution in social media. But the party's redemption, they say, has to be a long-term effort centered on running effective messengers in battleground territories. 'At the end of the day, candidates drive interest,' Schale said. 'A lot of folks want to find the easy solution. They want to spend $20 million to build a better podcast. And the reality is we need to elect more mayors and state legislators and county commissioners and county judges in communities that we have to do better in.' 'There are things we can do to do a better job at driving a message, but candidates are the ones that go in races,' Schale added. 'If you have messengers who are going to talk directly to the issues that voters care about, you can do well.' 2024 Election Coverage Experts also caution that social media algorithms breed extremism and polarization, which is why they say Republicans have seen so much success on platforms like X and YouTube. But they say the answer is not for the Democratic establishment to radicalize and change its rhetoric. 'What Democrats can do to most effectively deal with social media is create conditions within social media that don't privilege extremism and misinformation and polarization,' Russell said. 'I think social media is dropping the ball. When we have our public conversations boosted on platforms that privilege extremism, that's where the ball is being dropped.' 'This is the moment when these things are still movable,' she added.
The Hill
13 minutes ago
- The Hill
The Memo: Trump struggles to extract himself from Epstein mire
President Trump is trying, yet again, to climb out of the political mire into which he has sunk over the Jeffrey Epstein scandal. On Wednesday, Trump sought to pin the blame on unnamed Republicans for getting 'duped' by Democrats over the lack of new revelations about the disgraced financier and sexual predator. 'It's a hoax,' Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, where he was meeting with the Crown Prince of Bahrain, Salman bin Hamid Al Khalifa. 'It's started by Democrats. It's been run by the Democrats for four years.' Trump further complained that 'some stupid Republicans and foolish Republicans fall into the net and so they try and do the Democrats' work. The Democrats are good for nothing other than these hoaxes.' Such claims point to a deep level of frustration on the president's part about a controversy that — unusually for him — has left his own base discontented. His anger was also apparent in a social media post on Wednesday morning, where he lamented about a supposed Democratic-pushed 'SCAM' over Epstein. Trump griped that 'my PAST supporters have bought into this 'bull—-' hook, line and sinker.' It remains to be seen whether his appeal to party and personal loyalty will be enough to quell the storm. Trump's strategy cuts against years of speculation on the right that more skeletons were about to fall out of Epstein's closet. Right-wing influencer Laura Loomer and Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) have both called for the appointment of a special counsel to look deeper into the Epstein matter. The political problem, in short, is that the Trump administration has delivered far less than they once promised. Staunch Trump allies, including Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI director Kash Patel and deputy FBI director Dan Bongino had suggested major revelations about Epstein were at hand. In previous years, during former President Biden's administration, Trump's eldest son Don Jr. and future-Vice President Vance had implied there were nefarious reasons why the public had not learned more about Epstein's activities. Epstein had myriad connections to the rich, powerful and politically influential. A deal he struck with prosecutors when he was first investigated almost two decades ago has been widely criticized for its leniency. He pleaded guilty to prostitution-related charges at that point. At the time of his death, he faced new and more expansive charges revolving around the alleged sex trafficking of minors. Trump himself called Epstein a 'terrific guy' in a 2002 New York magazine profile, in which the future president also referred to Epstein's liking of women 'on the younger side.' This was before Epstein had ever been investigated. He and Trump later fell out. Epstein was also acquainted with powerful Democrats, including former President Clinton. Clinton wrote in a book published last year that he found Epstein 'odd' but that he had 'no inkling of the crimes he was committing.' As far as the Trump base is concerned, the expectation that some new information was at hand was stoked anew by a February interview Bondi gave to Fox News. There, she said that Epstein's client list was 'sitting on my desk right now to review.' But earlier this month a joint, unsigned memo from the FBI and the Department of Justice (DOJ) asserted that there was, in fact, 'no incriminating 'client list,'' nor any 'credible evidence found that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals as part of his actions.' The memo also asserted that Epstein had indeed killed himself in his cell at a New York City detention facility in August 2019. Speculation and lurid rumors have long swirled about Epstein's death. The pouring of cold water on all the speculation about Epstein has created chaos for Trump. Bondi and Bongino were widely reported to have had a confrontation about the issue, and Bongino was rumored to be considering resigning. No resignation has materialized and Trump has backed Bondi. The president did so again on Wednesday, saying that his attorney general had promised to release any further 'credible' information and asking rhetorically, 'What more can she do than that?' Democrats have upped the pressure, with Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) pushing a congressional measure that would have forced a release of the so-called Epstein files. One Republican member, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) backed Khanna's effort. Meanwhile, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) on Wednesday sought to close down perceptions that he was breaking with Trump on the topic. In an interview published the previous day with conservative podcaster Benny Johnson, the Speaker had said Trump 'should put everything out there and let the people decide' the facts on Epstein. But on Wednesday, he told reporters at the Capitol, 'We're for transparency. I'm saying the same thing the president is — that, I mean, you need to have all of the credible information released for the American people to make their decision. We trust the American people. And I know the president does as well.' For now, though, the fire over Epstein has not yet burnt itself out.
