Trump campaign attacks Kamala Harris in new immigration ad

The Trump campaign on Monday bought two weeks of television, cable and digital airtime in the swing states of Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, Arizona, Nevada and Wisconsin worth $12 million, tracking company AdImpact said. It was the first television advertising buy for Donald Trump since the Republican nomination campaign.

The new ad, released Tuesday and set to air this week, directly attacks Vice President Harris for her role in overseeing diplomatic efforts to stem migration from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala, a job the White House described at the time as addressing the “root causes of migration.” Republicans and some experts have since referred to her role as President Biden’s “border czar” – a label she has rejected.

The ad includes an excerpt from a June 2021 interview with Harris by NBC News anchor Lester Holt, in which he asks her why she hasn’t visited the U.S.-Mexico border during the first months of Biden’s presidency. “And I haven’t been to Europe. I mean, I don’t understand what you’re trying to say,” she replies.

Harris visited the border a few weeks later and has since reported successes in combating the root causes of immigration from these three Central American countries.

But the attack on Trump suggests that it is also responsible for other immigration-related problems, including the rise in migrant crossings during the Biden administration, the fentanyl trade, violent crimes by undocumented immigrants and recent reports of Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests of undocumented aliens in the United States with ties to the extremist group Islamic State.

The ad begins with footage from a celebration of hip-hop’s 50th anniversary that Harris hosted at the vice president’s residence in 2023 in collaboration with the Recording Academy’s Black Music Collective and Live Nation Urban. She is seen in a colorful outfit, dancing happily to a song as the ad’s narrator declares, “This is America’s border czar, and she has failed us.”

After winning the Republican race, the Trump team decided not to compete with the Democrats on television advertising spending in the spring and early summer. According to AdImpact, the Biden-Harris team spent $138 million on advertising from March to July 29.

MAGA Inc., a Super PAC supporting Trump, ran television ads during that time, but the independent groups supporting Biden spent significantly more money.