The Kamala Harris campaign knows how to pick its spots and really picked one over the weekend by creating a devastating ad that will run on Fox News, and the West Palm Beach and Philadelphia media markets on Tuesday, the day of the debate. Even more powerfully, the ad uses only quotes from Donald Trump’s own staff in his last term. You know, “the best people”?
It is the choice to run the ad in West Palm Beach that makes it art. They know that a mad Trump is his own worst enemy. If he’s angry, one can step back and watch an old maxim play out. If your opponent is busy defeating himself, just take in a movie, run the kids to Target, anything – just don’t get in the way.
Oh and Trump will be mad, be sure. Nothing cuts him up like hearing formerly trusted people say that he’s dangerous. So, to the ad we go, as compiled by Politico, the narrator says:
“In 2016 Donald Trump said he would choose only the best people to work in his White House. Now those people have a warning for America: Trump is not fit to be president again.”
Okay, line the quotes and the former staff up. Trump’s former Vice-President Mike Pence of all people: “[I]t should come as no surprise that I will not be endorsing Donald Trump this year.” No. Pence will not, at least he wouldn’t in the primary.
Anyone else?
Why, yes – there is John Bolton, former National Security Advisor with a warning: “Donald Trump, will cause a lot of damage. The only thing he cares about is Donald Trump.” Pretty damning. Don’t worry about the fact that John Bolton is dangerous precisely because the only thing Bolton cares about is unleashing the military on the rest of the world.
The ad comes at a critical point not just because of the debate but because some powerful stuff just came out, not from a former staffer, but from one of the GOP’s most venerable senior citizens, Dick Cheney, who said:
“In our nation’s 248-year history, there has never been an individual who is a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump. He tried to steal the last election using lies and violence to keep himself in power after the voters had rejected him. He can never be trusted with power again.”
Just because Dick Cheney should never have been trusted to watch your cat, never mind real power, doesn’t make him wrong.
Here is the ad, then follow me below:
The quote from retired Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Mark Milley, who served under Trump and into President Biden’s term, is particularly cutting primarily because it is true. Public officials swear loyalty to the Constitution above and beyond the nation or any “wanna be dictator.”
The Harris campaign is on top of things and using her massive cash haul from the summer to buy up ad time with precision in both place and time. If you win Pennsylvania, it will be hard not to win the election. And if either candidate clearly beats the other in Tuesday night’s debate that candidate will almost surely beat the other in November. But all of it requires a stable support structure of the type put in place by ads amplifying an underlying message.
The message itself is simple. Trump cannot be trusted with power. It is the fact that the message comes from only the “best people” that puts it over the top.
Now, just “be best” in the debate, Kamala. Moderates, the best remaining voters, will be watching.
The chickens come home to roost, and how!
These ads are going to have trump so on edge he’s going to lose it tomorrow. Kamala need only stick to her message of hope, be ready with the facts, and above all ignore the psychotic seven year-old throwing a tantrum across the room.
Good to see the gloves off. You can’t repeat a slogan like when we fight we win, without backing it up with action.
Love this ad. More like this, please, please and pretty please! Show them nationwide on FOX news.
“… only the best …”. Huh? What metric did Trump subscribe to, to measure up to this standard? Lies, bullshit and bluster, that’s what. Now those significant others Trump used to achieve his level of “… only the best …” are going to beat him up with verifiable irrefutable evidence, being Trump’s own words and connivance. Reap what you sow Trump. Reap what you sow.
Most of us, confronted with a furious foamy-mouthed psychopath hurling abuse at us, dead mic or not, would have trouble keeping our cool and retaining our self-control. But Kamala’s been there/done that in courtrooms many times before, and with far more dangerous psychos than an aging, incoherent ex-gameshow host. She’ll be fine, whereas Trump will be doomed to expose himself as the blatantly unfit candidate for office that he is.