Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump on Tuesday both released fresh TV advertisements as the competing campaigns look to find their footing in a dramatically changed -- and bound to be contentious -- presidential election in just 98 days.
The new ads from both sides focus on the vice president and come after President Joe Biden’s decision to drop his reelection bid and endorse Harris, setting off a race to shape the narrative around the new candidate likely to be the Democratic presidential nominee.
The ad from the Harris campaign, called “Fearless,” highlights the vice president’s history as a courtroom prosecutor and attorney general of California, noting she “put murderers and abusers behind bars” and took on big banks.
“Because Kamala Harris has always known who she represents,” the ad continues, before going on to accuse Trump of wanting to “take our country backward,” building on a theme Harris has sought to establish during her first week on the trail when she has often said the election is about a vision for the future versus the past.
“But we are not going back,” the ad concludes in Harris’ voice.
“Throughout her career as a courtroom prosecutor, Attorney General, United States Senator, and now as Vice President, Kamala Harris has always stood up to bullies, criminals and special interests on behalf of the American people – and she’s beaten them,” Harris’ campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon said in a statement. “She’s uniquely suited to take on Donald Trump, a convicted felon who has spent his entire life ripping off working people, tearing away our rights, and fighting for himself.”
The one-minute spot will run during the Olympics Games and other programming such as The Bachelorette, The Daily Show and Love & Hip Hop, according to Harris’ team. It’s the first ad in the Harris campaign’s new $50 million battleground state paid media blitz ahead of the Democratic National Convention, set to kick off on Aug. 19.
Trump’s team on Tuesday, on the other hand, released its first major TV ad targeting Harris just over a week since she became Democrats’ likely nominee.
The 30-second spot seeks to hit the vice president on immigration and the southern border, starting with a video of her dancing and referring to her as “America’s border czar,” a phrase Republicans have latched onto to criticize Harris and one Democrats have sought to aggressively push back against. Biden tasked Harris, his vice president, with leading the charge to tackle the root causes of migration.
The ad goes on to say that under the vice president, “over 10 million [are] illegally here” and “a quarter of a million Americans [are] dead from fentanyl.”
The spot then highlights an interview Harris did with NBC News’ Lester Holt three years ago in which the anchor pressed the vice president on criticism for not visiting the border.
“Kamala Harris. Failed. Weak. Dangerously liberal,” the ad concludes with the words appearing on the screen.
The ad is part of a $12 million reservation the Trump team has made through Aug. 12 across the six biggest swing states, according to AdImpact, a firm that tracks data on advertisements.
Both ads out on Tuesday build on storylies the campaigns have already sought to establish in just the first week since it appeared likely that it would be Trump and Harris facing off in November.
The vice president has pointed to her background as a prosecutor and contrasted it with Trump’s legal troubles, including the guilty verdict in his New York hush money trial in May. Trump has often pointed to the Biden-Harris administration’s handling of the border as polls show the issue has surged in importance to voters.
Arrests for illegal border crossings hit all-time highs during Biden and Harris’ time in office. Encounters have significantly dropped in recent weeks after Biden took executive action to put restrictions on asylum.
Not to be outdone on the issue of immigration, later Tuesday, Harris unveiled a new video ad attacking Trump on the issue, accusing him of killing the bipartisan border bill crafted by the Senate earlier this year. The measure was crafted by Oklahoma Sen. James Lankford, a Republican, Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, an independent, and Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy, a Democrat, but it was killed by Republicans after House Speaker Mike Johnson declared it "dead on arrival," pressured by Trump who did not want to give Biden a win on the issue.
The video highights Harris' support for increasing the number of border patrol agents, investing in new technology to detect fentanyl and providing funding to stop human traffickers -- all provisions of the bill -- while painting Trump as the person who convinced Republicans to block the bill.
It also highlights Trump's felony conviction and criminal charges, with the narrator saying: "Kamala Harris prosecuted transnational gang members and got them sent to prison. Trump is trying to avoid being sentenced to prison."
"There's two choices in this election: The one who will fix our broken immigration system, and the one who's trying to stop her," the narrator continues.
“After killing the toughest border deal in decades, Donald Trump is running on his trademark lies because his own record and ‘plans’ are extreme and unpopular," Harris campaign spokesperson Ammar Moussa said in a statement. "As a former district attorney, attorney general, and now vice president, Kamala Harris has spent her career taking on and prosecuting violent criminals and making our communities safer. She'll do the same as president.”