Harris Hits Trump Where it Hurts in Brutal Pre-Debate Ad

Kamala Harris released a damning message Monday about Donald Trump, straight from the mouths of former members of his administration.

An advertisement released by the Harris campaign one day before the presidential debate highlights how all “the best people” Trump hired to work in his White House no longer support the Republican nominee. In fact, they have gone out of their way to sound the alarm.

The video includes footage of former Vice President Mike Pence, speaking after Trump’s original January 6 indictment, alleging that Trump pressured Pence not to certify the 2020 election results. The House January 6 investigative committee concluded that the former president had “riled up a mob that hunted his own vice president.”

“Anyone who puts themself over the Constitution should never be president of the United States,” Pence said at the time.

Last month, special counsel Jack Smith filed a new indictment against Trump, following a Supreme Court ruling that claimed that the former president’s conversations with Pence were “official conduct” and could not be used as evidence against him.

The video, which will run on Fox News ahead of the debate Tuesday, also contained the harsh words of former Defense Secretary Mark Esper, former national security adviser John Bolton, and retired General Mark Milley, who called Trump a “wannabe dictator.”

Not only do their words carry a dire warning, but their criticisms have a history of getting under Trump’s skin. When Milley went after Trump in a 2023 profile in The Atlantic, the former president suggested that the then head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff deserved to be put to death.

The ad narration concluded, “Take it from the people who knew him best: Donald Trump is a danger to our troops and our democracy. We can’t let him lead our country again.”

The second presidential debate will air on Tuesday at 9 p.m. on ABC.

Besides stumbling through his speeches onstage, it appears that Donald Trump is also struggling to keep up with basic facts this election season. And even his team has given up.

In a wide-ranging interview with New York magazine’s Olivia Nuzzi, published on Monday, Trump seemed to be unaware of major news events, as well as basic details about Kamala Harris. During one part of the conversation, Trump predictably went on a tangent about Harris’s Marxist background.

“And she’s Marxist, and that’s, that’s strange in this country because this country will never be a Marxist country. She’s actually—you know, her father is a big promoter of Marxism,” said Trump. Nuzzi pushed back and attempted to fact-check Trump: Harris was raised by her mother and does not have an active relationship with her father. Trump seemed genuinely surprised by the correction.

“I don’t know …” Trump said. “Maybe that’s true, yeah. I just don’t know anything about it. I just know that he’s a Marxist professor,” he responded.

When Nuzzi asked a Trump adviser how it could be the case that Trump appears to have not done his research, the longtime adviser gave a troubling anecdote about Joe Biden’s postdebate interview with George Stephanopoulos. “I called [Trump] and said, ‘I know a little about what happened in the interview. Do you want me to read it to you?’ He said, ‘What interview?’ He didn’t even know about it. I’m like, ‘Mr. President, there’s absolutely no possibility that you don’t know?’” Trump then reportedly asked the adviser what network the interview was airing on so he could TiVo it.

This interaction paints a picture of Trump as a student who refuses to do homework—even if  it means he’ll fail.

But some fault must be placed on Trump’s new ragtag team, as well. Neither Susan Wiles nor Chris LaCivita, Trump’s co-campaign chairs, was on the 2016 or 2020 team. And though it seems like Trump may appear to be course-correcting by bringing back Corey Lewandowski, his adviser from 2016, the former president told Nuzzi he wasn’t trying to fix a failing campaign.

“I just like him. Corey’s a character,” Trump said. “But I’m very happy with everybody.”

Donald Trump is still setting the stage to claim a stolen election in November.

Over the weekend, the Republican presidential nominee called for the imprisonment of his enemies, demanding that those involved with what he considers election interference should be prosecuted and jailed.

“CEASE & DESIST: I, together with many Attorneys and Legal Scholars, am watching the Sanctity of the 2024 Presidential Election very closely because I know, better than most, the rampant Cheating and Skullduggery that has taken place by the Democrats in the 2020 Presidential Election,” Trump wrote on Truth Social Saturday. “It was a Disgrace to our Nation! Therefore, the 2024 Election, where Votes have just started being cast, will be under the closest professional scrutiny and, WHEN I WIN, those people that CHEATED will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the Law, which will include long term prison sentences so that this Depravity of Justice does not happen again.”

That’s a convenient reversal of where Trump was just last week, when he admitted that he lost the 2020 presidential election “by a whisker.”

“We cannot let our Country further devolve into a Third World Nation, AND WE WON’T!” Trump continued, warning his followers to not support people in positions of authority overseeing the upcoming election. “Please beware that this legal exposure extends to Lawyers, Political Operatives, Donors, Illegal Voters, & Corrupt Election Officials. Those involved in unscrupulous behavior will be sought out, caught, and prosecuted at levels, unfortunately, never seen before in our Country.”

Trump’s tirade did not, however, refer to himself, despite the fact that he’s criminally charged with election subversion in Washington, D.C., and Georgia. Legal experts believe that Trump’s own admission of losing the 2020 election could damn his chances of surviving his January 6 trial, a case that was considered practically dead after the Supreme Court granted the former president wide-ranging immunity in July.

Donald Trump’s campaign team is worried that he’s going to mess up in his debate against Vice President Kamala Harris Tuesday.

The staffers reportedly don’t know if a “happy Trump” or “angry Trump” will show up  at the National Constitution Hall in Philadelphia, where ABC News will be hosting the debate, according to unnamed sources who spoke to The Guardian.

If Trump is frustrated, he may resort to personal insults, taking aim at Harris’s race and gender and hurting voters’ perceptions, which some of his fellow Republicans have criticized as counterproductive. Trump could also go into one of his angry rants, which gets his MAGA base excited but could alienate independent and swing voters.

After President Biden’s poor showing in June’s debate with Trump, Biden faced criticism and pressure that led to him dropping out of the race. Harris’s entry to the top of the Democratic debate has reversed Trump’s momentum, making his campaign desperate for a winning attack line or other means to regain their polling edge.

So Trump’s team hopes that a strong, winning performance can improve his standing. Ever since Harris entered the race, the Trump-Vance campaign has floundered, with damaging revelations about Republican vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance. His comments about people without children and his inability to interact normally with the public have not helped the campaign’s prospects.

Meanwhile, Harris’s selection of Minnesota Governor Tim Walz seems like a masterstroke in comparison, thanks to Walz’s strong record as a teacher and military veteran. The Democratic vice presidential candidate has also produced some powerful sound bites and hit Republicans hard with one of the strongest and simplest Democratic attack lines in years: calling them weird.

Like in June’s debate, each candidate’s microphones will be muted when it’s not their turn to speak, which is a relief to Trump staffers who think his interruptions will make him look bad. Unlike with Biden, Harris will have rhetorical skills that she honed in her days as a prosecutor, which could easily rattle a convicted felon showing signs of cognitive decline.

Nikki Haley is now working in communications—and she’s going to tweet whatever she wants.

On Friday, the failed Republican presidential candidate went deep in the archives to mock conservative pundit Lauren Chen, who was implicated this week in a Justice Department indictment on a massive Russian disinformation scheme.

A company Chen co-founded, Tenet Media, was found to have been funded by Russia as part of “a scheme to create and distribute content to U.S. audiences with hidden Russian government messaging.” And just a few days after the indictment, Tenet Media shuttered its doors.

“Karma’s a bitch,” Haley posted on X (formerly Twitter), quoting a Chen post from 2023 where the pundit said Haley “should move to Ukraine and run for its presidency then,” referencing Haley stating her support for Ukraine at a CNN town hall.

In addition to Tenet Media folding as a result of the indictment and the consequent negative publicity, Chen also lost her job at another conservative media outlet, Blaze Media. Meanwhile, Haley, who withdrew from the presidential race in March and subsequently endorsed Donald Trump, just took a job at a public affairs firm.

Tenet Media, which worked with right-wing influencers like Tim Pool, Dave Rubin, Lauren Southern, and Benny Johnson, is now a black mark on the résumé of Chen and her husband, Liam Donovan, the company’s other founder. Being singled out as a useful tool for a Russian disinformation campaign is not going to land her a cushy new job, unlike Nikki Haley.

Despite the funny tweet, it’s worth remembering that Haley is still backing Trump, who isn’t exactly a staunch supporter of Ukraine himself. But, seeing as she isn’t working in politics anymore, she can collect her P.R. paycheck and not have to worry about being called out herself.