Harris, Trump battle out with multi-million dollar ad blitz

Washington: US Vice-President Kamala Harris and US President Donald Trump launched a multi-million dollar advertising campaign on Tuesday, which will be broadcast in the key states that will decide who wins the US presidential election in 2024.

'Harris for President' announced a $50 million paid media buy that will begin in mid-August and run through the Democratic National Committee convention in Chicago. The first of these ads -- called 'Fearless' -- will air on Tuesday.

“Throughout her career as a courtroom prosecutor, Attorney General, United States Senator, and now as Vice President, Kamala Harris has always stood up to bullies, criminals, and special interests on behalf of the American people -- and she’s beaten them,” said Jen O’Malley Dillon, chair of the Harris campaign, IANS reported.

“She’s uniquely suited to take on Donald Trump, a convicted felon who has spent his entire life ripping off working people, tearing away our rights, and fighting for himself.”

The 'Fearless' and ads that will follow will run locally and nationally during high-viewership shows such as the ongoing Paris Olympics, whose opening ceremony was watched by 30 million Americans, 'The Bachelorette', 'The Simpsons', 'Big Brother', and 'The Daily Show', the campaign said.

The campaign also features clips from Harris’s first election rally that took place at Milwaukee in Wisconsin, a battleground state.

After floundering for a central message to attack Harris’ candidacy, the Trump campaign appears to have settled on “immigration”, a hot-button issue. The campaign will spend $12 million on these ads to be aired in six swing states, according to Politico.

“This is America's border czar and she’s failed us,” the voice-over on the ad starts.

“Under Harris, over 10 million illegally here. A quarter of a million Americans died from fentanyl. Brutal migrant crimes. And ISIS is here now.”

Harris was briefly tasked by President Joe Biden to tackle the surge in the arrival of undocumented migrants at its root in the countries accounting for most of them, including El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala.

The primary responsibility rested with Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who survived an impeachment move launched against him by Congressional Republicans. But the Trump campaign has used 'border czar' for Harris to tie her to the surge.

The ad cuts to a widely seen interview with NBC in which she made light of the border issue.

“Do you have any plans to visit the border,” the interviewer asks her, adding, “You haven't been to the border?”

“And I haven't been to Europe," Harris says, adding, “I understand the point that you’re making.”

The voice-over resumes to deliver the punchline: “Kamala Harris: Failed, weak, dangerously liberal.”