Act of Love (politics)

Act of Love is a phrase used by American politician Jeb Bush to describe the act of immigrating illegally to the United States for the purpose of improving a family's economic condition, and also a U.S. political advertisement released by the 2016 presidential campaign of Donald Trump as part of an attack on Bush's approach to illegal immigration to the United States.

This article is part of a series about
Jeb Bush
  • Governor of Florida
  • Presidential campaign

Background

Bush made the statement in answer to a question put by a reporter during a celebration of the 25th anniversary of the presidency of his father, George H. W. Bush, held at the George Bush Presidential Library in April 2014.[1] During the August 6, 2015 Republican Presidential debate, when moderator Chris Wallace asked Bush if he stood by this statement, Bush responded, "I do. I believe that the great majority of people coming here illegally have no other option. They want to provide for their family." He added that "there should be a path to earned legal status" for illegal immigrants.[2][3]

The advertisement, released in August 2015, attacked Bush by playing a tape of Bush defending illegal entry into the U.S. by undocumented migrants as "an act of love." In the ad, mugshots of illegal immigrants who committed violent crimes in the U.S. alternate with footage of Bush saying, "Yeah, they broke the law, but it's not a felony.... It's an act of love."[4][5]

It is regarded by a number of commentators as having been a crucial turning point in the failure of the Bush candidacy.[2][6]

Response to advertisement

The ad attracted comparisons to the 1988 "Willie Horton" advertisement, "one of the most notorious political attacks in recent decades."[7][8]

Role in 2016 campaign

The phrase is regarded as having played a role in the withdrawal of Bush's candidacy.[9]

Looking back on the event months later, The Weekly Standard called "Act of Love" a "gonzo web video" and "Trump's first truly effective ad" and said that it "pointed out that the debate in which Bush defended illegal immigrants took place just a month after the killing of Kathryn Steinle in San Francisco by an illegal immigrant who had been deported multiple times."[6] The ad features an image of Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez, the sole suspect in that killing.[10]

According to The Washington Post, "[n]o candidate in the race was prepared for GOP voters' opposition to immigration, with the exception of Trump", and the anti-illegal-immigration sentiment tapped by Trump contributed to Bush's defeat.[11] According to Eric Fehrnstrom, a Republican political analyst and media strategist, Bush's response to the question put to him about this statement during the August 2015 Republican presidential debate marked a crucial turning point in the campaign for the Republican nomination.[2] Looking back on the campaign, conservative political analyst Michael Barone considers the Trump's two-pronged attack on Bush in the August Republican primary debate, for the "act of love" position on illegal immigration and for being weak, as a key moment in Trump's political rise.[12]

Impact of ad on campaign media

The San Francisco Chronicle described the ad, together with Bush's attacks on Trump, as pivotal in transforming Instagram from a personal photo-sharing app that some celebrities and politicians used to enhance their images into a campaign tool.[13]

References
  1. O'Keefe, Ed (April 6, 2014). "Jeb Bush: Many illegal immigrants come out of an 'act of love'". Washington Post. Archived from the original on March 7, 2016. Retrieved February 24, 2016.
  2. Fehrnstrom, Eric (February 10, 2016). "A punch-drunk Jeb Bush carries on". Boston Globe. Archived from the original on February 22, 2016. Retrieved February 25, 2016.
  3. Taylor, Jessica (August 6, 2016). "Trump Clashes With Rivals, Fox Moderators In First GOP Debate". NPR. Archived from the original on March 31, 2016. Retrieved March 23, 2016.
  4. Richardson, Bradford (August 31, 2015). "Trump rips Bush over 'act of love' remarks on illegal immigration". The Hill. Archived from the original on February 20, 2016. Retrieved February 24, 2016.
  5. Warren, Michael (August 31, 2015). "Trump Hits Jeb on 'Act of Love'". The Weekly Standard. Retrieved February 24, 2016.
  6. Warren, Michael (February 20, 2016). "Donald Trump Loses His Perfect Foil - Jeb Bush". The Weekly Standard. Retrieved February 25, 2016.
  7. Rucker, Philip (August 31, 2015). "Chilling Trump video attacks Bush for calling illegal immigration 'act of love'". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on March 7, 2016. Retrieved February 25, 2016.
  8. Stokols, Eli. "Under attack, Bush calls Trump soft on crime". Politico. Archived from the original on 2017-01-03. Trump released a video Monday morning that features Bush's statement about undocumented immigrants crossing the border as "an act of love" with images of three undocumented immigrants facing murder charges — a video many are comparing to the infamous Willie Horton TV ad used by George H.W. Bush's supporters in 1988 to portray the Democratic nominee, Michael Dukakis, as soft on crime.
  9. Saddiqui, Sabina (February 21, 2016). "Fall of the House of Bush". The Guardian. Archived from the original on March 19, 2016. Retrieved March 24, 2016.
  10. Weinberg, Ali (September 1, 2015). "Kate Steinle Lawsuit Has Political Reverberations in Washington Over Illegal Immigration". ABC News. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved February 25, 2016.
  11. Ehrenfreund, Max (February 22, 2016). "Republican voters are rejecting not just Jeb Bush, but the whole Bush legacy". Washington Post. Archived from the original on February 24, 2016. Retrieved February 24, 2016.
  12. Barone, Michael (March 3, 2016). "The five key ingredients of Donald Trump's soaraway success". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on March 20, 2016. Retrieved March 23, 2016.
  13. Garafoli, Joe (September 4, 2015). "Trump and Bush attack ads turn Instagram into a battleground". San Francisco Chronicle. Archived from the original on March 3, 2016. Retrieved February 24, 2016.
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