Former President Donald J. Trump’s presidential campaign has been running this 30-second ad on television stations in Michigan and central and western Pennsylvania at a cost of $833,401 since Oct. 2, according to AdImpact.
Here’s a look at the ad, its accuracy and its major takeaway.
On the Screen
The advertisement opens with an image of Ms. Harris and Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont clasping hands and smiling during a Democratic primary debate in 2019, under the headline “Co-sponsored the Green New Deal,” citing a National Public Radio report.
A photo of Ms. Harris is shown alongside the phrases “expansive new taxes” and “increase energy costs,” citing a 2019 New York Times article. A photo of Ms. Harris, in a protective mask, filling up an electric vehicle is shown under the headline “Ban gas-powered cars,” citing a 2019 Sacramento Bee article.
The ad then plays a clip of Ms. Harris with Jimmy Fallon from an appearance on “The Tonight Show” taking part in the late-night show’s recurring “Slow Jam the News” feature.
Three men in work clothes are shown with skeptical expressions on their faces, under the headline “Kamala’s scheme: ‘Kill jobs,’” and a gas station is the backdrop for the headline “Kamala’s scheme: ‘Raise gas prices.’” And a video clip shows Ms. Harris giddily dancing with the talk-show host Ellen DeGeneres.
The ad closes with images of Mr. Trump shaking hands with a variety of blue-collar workers, some in protective gear, under the headline “The economy was stronger,” citing CNN.
The Script
Narrator
“Kamala Harris pushed the far-left Green New Deal. That means huge new taxes, increased utility bills and banning gas cars.”
HARRIS
“That’s why I am committed to passing a Green New Deal and finally putting an end to fracking once and for all.”
FALLON
“Mmm, mmm, mmm. Mamala Kamala just don’t give a frack.”
Narrator
“Kamala’s fracking ban would kill jobs and raise gas prices. Kamala doesn’t give a frack about you. Only President Trump will bring back Trump’s strong economy.”
Accuracy
Ms. Harris, as a senator in 2019, was an original co-sponsor of the Green New Deal, a nonbinding resolution backed by liberal Democrats that called for the United States to transition fully to clean energy within a decade. It guaranteed high-paying new jobs in clean-energy industries and outlined a plan to address climate change that would have required changes and investments in the economy. Many energy experts and economists agreed that getting to the future it imagined would involve new taxes and could increase energy costs, depending on how it was enacted.
During her 2019 presidential campaign, Ms. Harris backed phasing out sales of new gas-powered cars by 2035. She also supported a ban on hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, a process used to extract hard-to-access oil and natural gas from bedrock by injecting water and chemicals underground at high pressure; environmentalists say it pollutes the air and groundwater.
But Ms. Harris says she no longer supports either of those positions, and she has expressed support for developing more oil and gas.
The clip from “The Tonight Show” was also selectively edited to delete Ms. Harris’s emphasis on job creation. She had actually said, “I am committed to passing a Green New Deal, creating clean jobs and finally putting an end to fracking once and for all.”
Some of the citations are misleading. Two quotations, attributed to Reuters and E&E News, say that her plan would “kill jobs” and “raise gas prices,” but those opinions were expressed by Mr. Trump’s allies and were not independent analyses. And the CNN quotation, “the economy was stronger,” came from an article about voters who held that view.
The Takeaway
Michigan and Pennsylvania were critical to Mr. Trump’s victory in 2016 and to his defeat in 2020. This ad paints Ms. Harris as overly liberal and ties her to policies that could increase energy costs and taxes.
Mr. Trump and his allies have repeatedly pointed to positions Ms. Harris took during her failed 2020 primary campaign, when she courted liberal support, as evidence that she is too left-wing for the country. The edited clip from “The Tonight Show” uses Ms. Harris’s own words, making it hard to disregard, though it also snips away three words that would have lessened the clip’s impact.
Pennsylvania is crucial to both candidates, and Mr. Trump plainly hopes to use fracking as a wedge issue there. The state is actually facing a gas glut that has led to slower drilling and fewer jobs. But energy costs are a major issue for voters.
Similarly, the shot of Ms. Harris with an electric vehicle advances Mr. Trump’s aim of tying the vice president to a push for electric vehicles that he has warned could lead to job losses for union autoworkers.
The post Inside a Trump Ad Attacking Harris on Energy and the Environment appeared first on New York Times.
