MAGA Inc., the main super PAC supporting Republican nominee Donald Trump, is adding $32 million in ads attacking Harris through Labor Day, according to a super PAC official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the group’s plans. Future Forward, the largest Democratic-leaning super PAC, will spend $50 million on advertising in six states over the next three weeks to boost Harris, the group said Thursday.
The dueling efforts to tarnish and burnish Harris’s record were announced as the vice president was aiming to outline her vision on domestic and foreign policy. After addressing the teachers, Harris returned to Washington on Thursday to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a preview of the delicate political and policy terrain she must navigate during her shortened and frenetic presidential campaign.
The developments Thursday reflected the unsettled state of the presidential race four days after President Biden abruptly ended his reelection bid and endorsed his vice president. Though Harris has succeeded thus far in uniting and energizing Democrats behind her presidential bid, the impending onslaught of ads and the complex politics of U.S.-Israel relations threaten to complicate her sprint to Election Day.
“Israel has a right to defend itself — and how it does so matters,” Harris said after her meeting with Netanyahu, which she described as “frank and constructive.” She named each of the Americans held hostage by the “brutal terrorist organization” Hamas and addressed the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
“I also expressed with the prime minister my serious concerns about the scale of human suffering in Gaza, including the death of far too many innocent civilians,” she said, again speaking about the plight of Palestinians in more forceful and empathetic terms than Biden has.
“We cannot look away in the face of these tragedies,” Harris said. “We cannot allow ourselves to become numb to the suffering. And I will not be silent.”
Harris’s address to the American Federation of Teachers on Thursday morning was the latest in a string of events that have demonstrated support for her bid to defeat Trump. After a rally in Milwaukee on Tuesday and a speech to thousands of Black women at a sorority convention in Indianapolis on Wednesday, Harris’s speech to the AFT, a 1.8 million-member group that has endorsed her candidacy, was yet another foray into friendly territory with large, adoring crowds.
Harris’s one-on-one meeting with Netanyahu was more staid. In her first sit-down with a foreign leader since launching her campaign for president, Harris confronted the rifts that have emerged between the United States and Israel over the war in Gaza. Voters who had vowed not to vote for Biden over his handling of the war have said they will be watching Harris closely as she publicly deals with a thorny foreign policy matter for the first time since Biden’s exit from the race.
Earlier Thursday, Harris released her campaign launch video in an attempt to introduce herself to the country during the 100-plus-day sprint to Election Day. The video aimed to draw a sharp distinction with Trump and amplify the pro-freedom theme that has become central to Harris’s pitch.
“In this election, we each face a question: What kind of country do we want to live in?” Harris says in the video, which campaign officials said would air across social media platforms beginning Thursday. “There are some people who think we should be a country of chaos. Of fear. Of hate. But us? We choose something different. We choose freedom.”
Meanwhile, Trump and his allies have criticized Harris more directly in recent days, aiming to define her before she has an opportunity to introduce herself more broadly to the public.
At a rally in North Carolina on Wednesday, Trump referred to Harris as a “lunatic” and “incompetent,” attacking her on immigration and painting her as incredibly liberal.
“If Kamala Harris gets in, she would be the most radical, far-left extremist ever to occupy the White House, times 10,” Trump said.
The new ads from MAGA Inc. are expected to criticize Harris’s handling of the southern border — for instance, her past comments that “the border is secure” — as well as her record as a prosecutor. The MAGA Inc. official said the group plans to spend tens of millions of dollars on commercials from now until Labor Day on Sept. 2, which often ushers in a ramped-up final stretch of campaign activity. Politico first reported the new ad spending.
The attack ads will be focused in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Nevada and Arizona, the MAGA Inc. official said.
Voters in those states and others will also see pro-Harris ads from Democratic-leaning groups, including Future Forward, American Bridge 21st Century and Women Vote. Future Forward’s will begin airing Saturday, with a positive biographical spot about Harris.
During a Thursday interview on Fox News, Trump previewed the attacks he will use to paint a more negative portrait of Harris, calling her “nasty” and accusing her of staging a “palace coup” against Biden.
Harris’s campaign shot back Thursday by describing Trump as a “78-year-old criminal” and calling him “old and quite weird.”
“After watching Fox News this morning, we only have one question: Is Donald Trump OK?” the campaign said, offering Harris as “an alternative.”
Harris said Thursday she was eager to debate Trump directly, arguing that voters deserved to see a “split screen” between the two candidates.
“I’m ready to debate Donald Trump,” Harris told reporters Thursday. “I have agreed to the previously agreed upon September 10 debate. He agreed to that previously. Now, here he is backpedaling.”
Trump has suggested he is having second thoughts after agreeing to a Sept. 10 debate against Biden on ABC. After Biden dropped out, he has said the debate should take place on Fox News. In response, a Trump campaign spokesman suggested Thursday evening that “it would be inappropriate” to finalize debate details now because Democrats “could still change their minds” about having Harris on the ticket.
Some Republicans are still searching for the best way to attack Harris, who has entered the race with momentum in the form of record donations, growing crowds and a series of polls showing her closing the gap with Trump. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has asked GOP lawmakers not to make comments about Harris’s identity after some members referenced it in challenging her credentials.
More than two dozen Democratic female lawmakers gathered on Capitol Hill on Thursday to show support for Harris, forcefully pushing back on GOP attacks on her credentials. Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) called Harris a “DEI vice president” — referring to the “diversity, equity and inclusion” initiatives in federal programs — and Rep. Harriet Hageman (R-Wyo.) said in a local news interview that Harris was “a DEI hire.”
“These are no longer dog whistles. These are full on bullhorns, and it’s predictable,” Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) said.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the attacks were “disgusting.”
Harris has largely focused on domestic policy in her appearances this week, while Biden has indicated he would spend the final six months of his term leaning into foreign policy objectives.
But groups like the American Federation of Teachers, while mostly focused on issues like educator pay, recruitment, school funding and collective bargaining, have also taken interest in the war in Gaza, calling for a cease-fire and debating whether to divest from companies linked to Israel’s military campaign. The conflict has killed more than 39,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, and created a humanitarian calamity in which thousands of children have been out of school for months.
Biden met with Netanyahu on Thursday and spoke privately with the families of hostages who were among the 250 taken captive during Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack, which Israel estimates killed about 1,200 people. During an address to Americans on Wednesday evening, Biden pledged to use his remaining months to bring resolution to the long-running conflict.
“I’m going to keep working to end the war in Gaza, bring home all the hostages, and bring peace and security to the Middle East and end this war,” he said.
Hours earlier, Netanyahu had delivered a defiant speech to Congress — one that Harris skipped — in which he described pro-Palestinian protesters as “useful idiots.” Thousands of protesters took to the streets to decry Netanyahu’s visit, and some burned an American flag near Union Station in Washington.
Harris issued a statement Thursday condemning the protesters who engaged in property destruction or hateful rhetoric, saying the flag “should never be desecrated in that way.”
“I support the right to peacefully protest, but let’s be clear: Antisemitism, hate and violence of any kind have no place in our nation,” she said.
Harris steered clear of the issue during her speech in Houston, instead speaking out in favor of unions and the public education system and contrasting her positions with Trump’s views.
Calling herself a “proud product of public education,” Harris extolled the “noble” work of educators and attacked Republicans who have called for arming teachers to prevent school shootings.
“Just think about it. We want to ban assault weapons, and they want to ban books,” she said during the speech, which wrapped in a range of issues such as collective bargaining, abortion, gun violence and same-sex marriage under the broader theme of “fundamental freedoms.”
Hundreds of teachers and other attendees lined up at the American Federation of Teachers national educators union convention in Houston’s cavernous downtown convention center to hear Harris speak.
Some wore Biden-Harris shirts and said they were excited to hear her speak about education, particularly public schools and teacher recruitment. “It’s a special opportunity, being part of the democratic process,” said Eric Sutz, 45, an elementary school teacher from Long Island Sutz said he’s an independent but a Harris supporter, and he wore a Biden-Harris T-shirt. He said he was pleased to see so many Democrats endorsing Harris. “It should be whittling down to the best people,” he said, and if Harris becomes the nominee, he considers that “the best outcome.”
In describing various freedoms she says are at risk in the coming election, Harris has often listed key issues that Democrats hope will drive voter turnout, including gun control and abortion.
“The freedom not just to get by, but get ahead,” Harris says in her campaign launch video. “The freedom to be safe from gun violence. The freedom to make decisions about your own body.”
At one point in the ad, when Harris says that “no one is above the law,” an image of Trump’s mug shot flashes on the screen. But during her speech in Houston, she did not mention Trump’s felony convictions, a departure from recent events in which she has contrasted her record as a prosecutor with the former president’s long list of indictments.
Harris is continuing to ramp up her travel schedule. She plans to hold a campaign event in Atlanta on Tuesday, according to a person familiar with the trip who spoke on the condition of anonymity to preview an event that has not been publicly announced. The visit will be Harris’s first campaign stop in the battleground state of Georgia as a 2024 presidential candidate.
Although Georgia was once more reliably Republican, the state helped deliver the presidency to Biden in 2020. That year, Georgia voters also elected two Democrats to the Senate.
Michael Scherer, Hannah Knowles, Maegan Vasquez and Maeve Reston contributed to this report.
