Exclusive: A well-funded outside political committee supporting former President Trump’s White House campaign is attacking Vice President Kamala Harris on the issue of border security.
“America needs a commander in chief who is tough on illegal immigration, and Kamala Harris doesn’t fit the bill,” Art Del Cueto, vice president of the National Border Patrol Council, charged in a new ad from the super PAC Preserve America.
The ad, which first appeared on Fox News Digital on Friday, is the latest by the Trump campaign or an allied super PAC to target Harris for her weakness on border security, which many Republicans see as the vice president’s political Achilles heel.
Harris focuses on border security, Trump enjoys the fight
Trump and his allies have repeatedly criticized Harris over the nearly two weeks since she took the reins at the Democratic National Convention on Biden’s behalf over the surge in migrants crossing the southern border under the Biden administration.
Harris was tapped by Biden in 2021 to lead a diplomatic effort to address the “root causes” of migration in Central America, which has led to her being dubbed the “border czar” by both the media and her Republican opponents, though the White House has rejected that title.
2024 AD Wars: Trump competes to select VP Harris
Del Cueto has supported Harris and campaigned along the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona on Thursday with Trump’s running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance. Del Cueto calls Harris “Biden’s border czar” in an ad filmed along the southern border.
Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) addresses media during a visit to the U.S.-Mexico border in Hereford, Arizona, Thursday, Aug. 1, 2024. (Grace Trejo/Arizona Daily Star via The Associated Press)
“She supported sanctuary cities and taxpayer benefits for illegal immigrants, and created the worst border crisis in American history. Kamala Harris is dangerous,” he claimed.
The ad also includes an interview with “The View” from August 2019, after Harris ran unsuccessfully for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, in which she said, “I’m not going to criminalize people who come across the border illegally. That’s for sure.”
The ad is Preserve America’s second in a row criticizing Governor Harris over border security. The group told Fox News it will spend at least $10 million on ads from the Olympics through Labor Day as part of an advertising offensive in the key battleground states of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
Preserve America was founded after Trump’s failed reelection bid in 2020 and relaunched this spring to support the former president in his bid to retake the White House in 2024.
Republican megadonors fund pro-Trump groups
Miriam Adelson, the billionaire owner of the Las Vegas Sands gambling empire, is bankrolling the super PAC’s efforts, a source with knowledge of her plans confirmed to Fox News several months ago.
Adelson and her late husband, the casino mogul Sheldon Adelsonspent roughly $90 million on Preserve America four years ago, and sources say the super PAC plans to spend more in 2020 than it did for Trump.
Harris has spoken out against attacks on the Border Patrol and has been active on the issue.
Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a campaign rally in Atlanta, Tuesday, July 30, 2024. (AP Photo/John Bazemore) (AP Photo/John Bazemore)
“In this race, I will proudly put my record up against him,” Harris said at a rally in Atlanta on Tuesday, highlighting her work on border security as California’s attorney general.
The vice president argued that Republican presidential nominee Trump “talks big about securing the border but doesn’t do anything about it.”
She gave the example of a border security bill that had passed Congress with bipartisan support earlier this year, only to be opposed by Republicans at the urging of President Trump.
“The bill was expected to pass, but at the last moment President Trump instructed his allies in the Senate to vote it down,” Harris said.
She accused the former president of “destroying a bipartisan agreement because he thought it would help him win the election” and vowed that “as president, I will reinstate the border security bill that Donald Trump killed.”
Vice President Kamala Harris with migrants at the southern border. (Photo by Drew Hallowell/Getty Images, Qian Weizhong/VCG via Getty Images)
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The Trump campaign quickly took to social media to respond to the vice president’s comments at the rally.
“Kamala actually brags about her record on immigration. Here are the facts: As head of Border Control, Kamala sent over 15 million illegal immigrants directly into our communities. She thinks illegal immigration is ‘not a crime.’ She wants to abolish ICE. She thinks immigrants are stupid,” the Trump campaign claimed.
Hours earlier, in its first major advertising push of the general election, the Trump campaign accused Harris of “letting us down” on border security.
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