Vice President Kamala Harris launched a series of new political ads promoting her support for Ukraine. The ads come just days after the Democratic presidential candidate received rave reviews for her performance at last week’s debate against opponent Donald Trump.
With just 51 days until Election Day, the ads come at a consequential moment when the candidates are head to head in national polls and the swing states – Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Wisconsin – are still very much up for grabs.
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The three clips provide a rare historical snapshot of Russia’s imperialism in Eastern Europe over the last several hundred years, a perspective many Americans are unfamiliar with. One video begins by showing viewers a field of sunflowers before laying out a timeline of invasions – beginning with the Mongols in the year 1240 – over modern scenes of bombings and devastation.
“Donald Trump embraces Putin,” the ad claims, before showing a video of Trump saying: “I like Putin and Putin likes me,” during a campaign event. The clip is followed by another clip of Ohio Senator JD Vance, Trump’s running mate, saying, “I don’t really care what happens to Ukraine” during an interview.
“But Kamala Harris cares,” the ad continues. “She knows standing up to Putin keeps America safe.”
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Clips of former presidents Ronald Reagan and John F. Kennedy are contrasted with images of WWII soldiers in a second ad declaring that “American presidents defended American ideals. Kamala Harris gets this.”
The third ad emphasizes Russia’s historical conflicts with Poland and Eastern Europe more widely, stating that “Freedom-loving Poles and Ukrainians are warning us of another threat: Donald Trump encouraged Putin to attack our allies.” Many of the swing state voters in the Midwest, particularly in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan, have Eastern European heritage.
Both candidates were light on the details during Tuesday’s debate about how they planned on approaching continued aid for Ukraine.
Harris made clear her intention for the US to remain a staunch ally of the country and a defender of democracy globally, saying, “Because of our support… Ukraine stands as an independent and free country.” She appealed directly to the “800,000 Polish Americans right here in Pennsylvania” and argued: “If Donald Trump were president, Putin would be sitting in Kyiv right now.”
Trump, on the other hand, reiterated his commitment to get the war “settled” immediately, even before he potentially re-enters the White House. A recent poll by YouGov and the CATO Institute, a libertarian-leaning think tank, found that voters in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan currently believe that Trump would be more effective at ending the war in Ukraine and keeping the US out of other wars.
In response to the series of videos, a Trump campaign spokesman doubled down on the Republican candidate’s commitment to ending the war. Trump “will do what is necessary to restore peace and rebuild American strength and deterrence on the world stage, and he is the only person who can make that happen,” Steven Cheung, told Politico. “The war between Russia and Ukraine never would have happened if Donald J. Trump were president. So sad.”
The videos were not officially made or shared by the Harris campaign. Instead, they were created by America’s Future Majority, a democratic PAC (political action committee) with the mission to “rebuild America around the core values of freedom, a fair shot, and a better future for everyone” by filling “critical communication gaps with targeted voters in key battleground states.
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