A new ad from Harris' campaign calling Trump “dangerous” will feature comments from several former Trump officials, including former Vice President Mike Pence.
The ad, titled “The Best People,” The show, which aims to resurrect old criticisms of Trump from former Trump employees, will air on the same day as Tuesday's presidential debate on ABC and will be shown on multiple Fox affiliates across the country.
“Anyone who puts himself above the Constitution should never be president of the United States,” Pence said in August 2023, after former President Donald Trump was indicted for meddling in the results of the 2020 election. The Harris campaign used that comment in the new ad, as well as Pence's second comment from about six months ago on Fox News where he would not endorse Trump for president.
“Listen to the people who knew him best,” the ad's narrator says.
But a spokesperson for Advancing American Freedom, a nonprofit group Pence recently founded, suggested his decision not to endorse Trump does not amount to an endorsement of Kamala Harris, despite Pence's cameo in a new ad criticizing Trump. The spokesperson told Fox News Digital: In response to specific comments made by Pence “There is no way I could vote for Kamala Harris for president of the United States or Tim Walz as her running mate,” Pence said in a speech in Atlanta, Georgia, last month.
CNN has accused Harris, a longtime critic of Trump's border wall, of using it in her campaign ads.
Vice President Mike Pence and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz spoke to reporters after Pence visited 3M's headquarters in Maplewood, Minnesota. (Photo by Glen Stubbe/Star Tribune via Getty Images)
Harris' new ad also includes comments from a year ago made by Mark Esper, who served as Secretary of Defense in the Trump administration.
The Esper quote used in the ad was taken from a June 2023 interview with CNN, in which Esper was asked if he would be “trusted” with national secrets, given the scrutiny he has faced over how he handled classified documents since leaving the White House. “No,” he said. “That would just be irresponsible behavior that puts our service members at risk and puts our national security at risk.”
Fox News Digital reached out to a representative for Esper to ask if he was aware of his appearance in the ad but did not receive a response.
Meanwhile, former Trump national security adviser John Bolton and General Mark Milley, who served as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under Trump, have also appeared in new Harris campaign ads. Both Bolton and Milley have a history of being outspoken critics of the president.
John Bolton, former national security adviser to President Trump (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
More than 200 former Bush, McCain, Romney staffers endorse Harris: 'The alternative… is simply unacceptable'
“Donald Trump will do a lot of damage,” Bolton says in the ad. “All he cares about is Donald Trump.”
The Bolton quotes highlighted in the ad are from CNN interviews in October 2023 and last week, respectively.
The ad concludes with Milley's final speech as the nation's top military general in September 2023. “We don't take oaths to kings or queens, tyrants or dictators,” Milley says in the ad. “And we don't take oaths to would-be dictators.”
Fox News Digital reached out to representatives for Bolton and Milley for comment but did not hear back by press time.
President Joe Biden (right) shakes hands with outgoing Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley during a military farewell ceremony at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall in Arlington, Virginia, on Friday. (Nathan Howard/Sipa/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
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Meanwhile, Trump campaign national spokeswoman Caroline Leavitt called the new ad “dangerously liberal.” [Harris] teeth.”
“The Kamala campaign is trying to use the rhetoric of a few disgruntled losers who are losing in the polls to distract from the fact that Kamala is losing support from moderate Democrats who recognize how dangerously liberal she is,” Leavitt said Monday.
