In Trump Ad, ‘Not a Thing That Comes to Mind’ Ties Harris to Biden’s Liabilities

Kamala Harris’s hesitancy to put daylight between her and President Biden gave Donald Trump’s campaign a big opening.

Donald J. Trump’s presidential campaign is running this 30-second ad on television stations across the battleground states, spending more than $10 million on it over the past six days, according to AdImpact.

Here’s a look at the ad, its accuracy and its major takeaway.

On the Screen

The ad opens with a shot of what appears to be migrants running near a border wall, beneath a headline blaring, “Illegal crossings surge,” citing an Associated Press article from last December. It then shows a man shopping in the produce section of a grocery store, under the words “Prices still rising,” citing CNBC last May. A clip of a missile strike emphasizes the wars in Ukraine and in the Middle East, under the headline “Global chaos,” attributed to The Wall Street Journal in March. Vice President Kamala Harris is then shown smiling as if in satisfaction, her hands folded at her chin.

A clip plays from Ms. Harris’s Oct. 8 appearance on the ABC show “The View,” in which she is asked if she would have done something differently from President Biden, then responds, after blinking several times: “There is not a thing that comes to mind.”

The screen freezes on that frame, as new all-caps headlines reflect the narration: “What would change with Kamala? Nothing.” As a split screen seems to show Ms. Harris nodding along on the right, a clip of the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 plays under the headline “More weakness.” An aerial view of a ground explosion plays under the headline “More war.” A crowd of what appear to be migrants is headlined “Welfare for illegals.” And a machine counting $100 bills is shown under a last headline: “Harris would raise taxes.”

Mr. Trump is then shown, shot from below as he strides across an airport tarmac, waving to a rally crowd, shaking a blue-collar worker’s hand and showing off his signature on a piece of legislation, as more optimistic headlines flash by: “Middle-class tax cuts” and “Prices were lower.”

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The Script

Narrator

“A flood of illegals. Skyrocketing prices. Global chaos. And Kamala wouldn’t change a thing.”

Sunny Hostin, co-host of ‘The View’

“Would you have done something differently than President Biden during the past four years?”

Harris

“There is not a thing that comes to mind.”

Narrator

“Nothing will change with Kamala. More weakness. More war. More welfare for illegals. And even more taxes. Only President Trump cut middle-class taxes, and only President Trump will do it again.”

Accuracy

The ad makes claims based on interpretations of existing events, and some of them are exaggerated. The “flood” of undocumented immigrants has sharply decreased this year. Two wars are taking place overseas, but blaming Mr. Biden for them is a stretch. Ms. Harris has said she will increase taxes on high earners, but has ruled out doing so for middle-class taxpayers. Mr. Trump’s 2017 tax cut did include a cut for middle-class Americans, but many presidents have cut taxes for the middle class, including Mr. Biden. Undocumented immigrants are not eligible for most forms of welfare. And inflation peaked in 2022 at a two-decade high, but has cooled since.

The headlines generally appear to reflect their sources, though the “global chaos” headline from The Wall Street Journal appears to have been lifted from an opinion essay.

The Takeaway

Mr. Trump’s advisers were giddy when Ms. Harris, appearing on “The View,” gave them fresh firsthand evidence for the case they’ve been making for weeks: that she would have done nothing differently from Mr. Biden, and that she should also be held responsible for the entirety of his time in office.

The biggest concern that Mr. Trump’s advisers have had is that Ms. Harris would successfully open up space between herself and the unpopular Mr. Biden. Saying there was nothing she could think of that she would have handled differently allowed the Trump team to highlight areas where they see the Biden administration — and thus Ms. Harris — as most vulnerable: the economy, illegal immigration and the conflict between Israel and Gaza.