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In new ad, Harris says Trump attacks ‘designed to tear us apart’

Sep 26, 2024, 8:51pm EDT
politics
YouTube/Harris campaign
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The Scoop

Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign is out with a new advertisement pushing back against attack ads by the Trump campaign.

“You’ve probably seen all these negative ads against me. Well, here’s the deal. They are designed to tear us apart,” Harris says in the direct-to-camera spot, which was shared first with Semafor and will air across battleground states beginning Thursday.

“Look, everyone is tired of the petty, destructive politics,” she says. “Let’s turn the page and chart a new way forward.”

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Harris goes on in the 30-second spot to tout her work as a prosecutor, saying she “took on drug cartels and human traffickers to protect our communities.”

Titled “Life’s Work,” the ad is part of a $370 million buy that the Harris campaign announced in August. The script for the new ad resembles a similar moment from the debate earlier this month in which Harris also called on voters to “turn the page” on the Trump era, which the campaign’s research found was among her best-testing clips — especially among men.

The new TV spot is designed to reach out directly to on-the-fence voters still forming a picture of Harris amid a barrage of competing ads.

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“We have seen in our internal campaign research that the more voters hear directly from her in her voice, the more they like her and are drawn to her agenda,” a Harris campaign official said.

The Trump campaign has attacked Harris on immigration and sought to paint her as “dangerously liberal” in their own TV and digital commercials. The new battleground spot comes as Harris embarks on a much-watched trip to Arizona Friday, during which the vice president will try to shore up her vulnerabilities on border security.

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Notable

  • Both the Harris and Trump campaigns have focused their ad spending mostly on defining Harris, NBC News’ Ben Kamisar reports, with each side assuming that perceptions of Trump are far harder to change at this point.
  • Have Trump’s attack ads worked? Harris is more popular than ever in national polls, according to 538, and often has a positive favorability rating in swing states as well. But likability may not be enough, Washington Post chief correspondent Dan Balz notes: Polls show a virtually tied race, even as Trump scores worse personal ratings.
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