Trump, Harris launch dueling ad wars

Is Kamala Harris “fearless” or “failed”? The Harris and Trump campaigns both launched attempts to define the all-but-certain Democratic nominee with major new television advertisements out Tuesday, the first since President Joe Biden dropped out of the presidential race.

A new 60-second ad from Harris, titled “Fearless,” is heavy on biographical details, portraying her ascent to the vice presidency as a yearslong crusade of holding banks, drug companies and criminals accountable as a prosecutor. Meanwhile, former President Donald Trump is going all-in on the “border czar” tagline, attacking Harris as “failed, weak and dangerously liberal” in two 30-second spots that include footage from Harris’ 2021 interview with NBC News’ Lester Holt in Guatemala, where she was criticized for dismissing a question about why she hadn’t visited the U.S.-Mexico border.

The new ads are part of major new campaigns, the first since Biden’s exit reshaped the race and upended both candidates’ plans of attack. And they represent the opening salvo of a 100-day election sprint unlike any presidential campaign in modern history: Harris is hoping to ride her honeymoon phase — and high favorables — into November, while Trump aims to put an end to Democrats’ newfound invigoration as quickly as possible, reverting to similar attack lines that he used against Biden.

The “Fearless” Harris ad is part of a $50 million national placement through the Democratic National Convention on Aug. 19, Harris’ campaign said. According to the ad-tracking firm AdImpact, the campaign was reserving airtime in the seven states where Biden had been advertising — Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — and also adding the Omaha, Nebraska, market.

The ad will run on local and national broadcast television, cable programming, streaming and social channels, the campaign said — including spots during the Paris Olympics and major shows like “The Bachelorette” and “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.” Though the Harris campaign released the ad on Tuesday, it won’t begin airing on broadcast TV until Wednesday, according to AdImpact.

The campaign has $175.4 million in future reservations through Election Day, according to AdImpact. The Harris ad comes on the heels of a $50 million advertising pledge announced by the Future Forward super PAC, which had previously supported Biden, last week.

While Harris’ ad concludes with a warning of Trump’s desire to “take our country backward” by providing tax breaks to billionaires and repealing the Affordable Care Act, the former president’s campaign continues to hit Harris as “America’s border czar” in its ad .

The first Trump ad, which began airing on Tuesday, portrays Harris dancing to hip hop at a White House party and deflecting questions during an interview about visiting the border while the narrator argues that millions of people have illegally crossed the border, and 250,000 Americans have died from fentanyl, “on Harris’s watch.”

The second new Trump spot makes a similar argument, using footage from the same NBC News interview while swapping in a clip of Harris laughing. Both are part of a $12.2 million ad buy through Aug. 12 and distributed across six swing states: Pennsylvania, Georgia, Arizona, Wisconsin, Michigan and Nevada. The Trump campaign, which is not matching Harris’ ads in North Carolina or Omaha, has $112.7 million in future reservations through Election Day, according to AdImpact.