A new ad from the Harris campaign slamming Trump as “dangerous” will feature comments from several former top Trump officials, including former Vice President Mike Pence.
The ad, titled, “The Best People,” seeks to bring old criticisms targeted at Trump — from former top officials he once hired — back into the spotlight. It will be aired the same day as ABC’s presidential debate Tuesday, and is scheduled to play on multiple Fox affiliates across the country.
“Anyone who puts themselves over the Constitution should never be President of the United States,” Pence said in August 2023. It came after an indictment was handed down against former President Donald Trump for allegedly interfering with the 2020 election results. The Harris campaign utilized the remark in its new ad, as well as a second remark made by Pence on Fox News roughly six months ago, saying he would not be endorsing Trump for president.
“Take it from the people who knew him best,” a narrator says in the advertisement.
But despite the former vice president’s cameo appearance slamming Trump in the new ad, his decision not to endorse Trump does not equate to an endorsement for Kamala Harris, a spokesperson for Advancing American Freedom, a nonprofit recently founded by Pence, suggested. The spokesperson pointed Fox News Digital to a particular comment from Pence made last month in Atlanta, Georgia, during which Pence stated adamantly: “I could never vote for Kamala Harris as President of the United States, or Tim Walz her running mate.”
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Vice President Mike Pence and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz spoke to the press after Pence visited 3M World Headquarters in Maplewood, Minn. ((Photo by Glen Stubbe/Star Tribune via Getty Images))
The new Harris campaign advertisement also included year-old remarks from the former defense secretary under Trump, Mark Esper.
Esper’s comments utilized in the ad came from a June 2023 CNN interview, during which he was asked whether Trump “can be trusted” with the nation’s secrets in light of scrutiny over how he handled classified documents after leaving the White House. “No,” Esper says. “It’s just irresponsible action that places our service members at risk, places our national security at risk.”
Fox News Digital reached out to representatives for Esper to see if he was aware of his appearance in the ad, but did not hear back.
Meanwhile, Trump former national security adviser John Bolton and the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff under Trump, Gen. Mark Milley, also appeared in the new ad from the Harris campaign. Bolton and Milley both have a track record of being outspoken critics of Trump.
Trump’s former National Security Adviser John Bolton (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
“Donald Trump will cause a lot of damage,” remarks from Bolton in the ad. “The only thing he cares about is Donald Trump.”
Bolton’s remarks highlighted in the advertisement came from an interview on CNN in October 2023 and last week, respectively.
The ad concluded with remarks from Milley made during his final address as the nation’s top military general in September 2023. “We don’t take an oath to a king, or a queen, or a tyrant, or a dictator,” Milley says in the ad. “And we don’t take an oath to a wannabee dictator.”
Fox News Digital reached out for comment to representatives for Bolton and Milley, but did not receive a response by publication time.
President Joe Biden, right, shakes hands with Mark Milley, outgoing chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, during an armed forces farewell tribute at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall in Arlington, Virginia, on Friday. (Nathan Howard/Sipa/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
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Trump campaign National Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, meanwhile, slammed the new ad as an attempt to “distract” from how “dangerously liberal [Harris] is.”
“The Kamala campaign is using the words of a few disgruntled losers because they are losing in the polls and trying to distract from the fact that Kamala is losing support from moderate Democrats who realize how dangerously liberal she is,” Leavitt said on Monday.
