Harris’ new ad hits on Trump’s age by criticizing Vance

WASHINGTON — Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign is launching a new digital ad Tuesday calling Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance an “extremist” and a “threat to our democracy.”

The spot argues that Vance, R-Ohio, “could be a heartbeat away from the presidency” if Donald Trump wins in November, marking the first time the Democratic ticket has been ranked in paid media by age former president has been issued to a Harris official since she became the Democratic nominee.

The 50-second ad, aimed at voters in battleground states, ends with a video of Trump appearing to slur his speech at an event and then a Fox News host saying, “The former president missed his mark.” It’s the first time the Harris campaign has used such clips in one of its ads, the official said.

When 81-year-old President Joe Biden was still a candidate, age was a dominant campaign issue. Trump is 78 years old.

Harris’ campaign video comes just hours before her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, is set to face Vance in the vice presidential debate.

It includes Vance’s own words, including when he said, “I would definitely like abortion to be illegal on a national level”; Comments he made on a podcast while running for Senate in 2022; and “We have to be really ruthless when it comes to the exercise of power,” a comment he made about conservatives’ loss of cultural institutions.

“He’s not just strange or dangerous. He could be a heartbeat away from the Oval Office,” the narrator says toward the end of the spot.

Images of Project 2025, a conservative think tank’s blueprint for a second Trump term, are everywhere, trying to tie Vance closely to it. Republicans, including Trump and Vance, have sought to distance themselves from the plan, despite the ties between both candidates’ originators and allies.

“The American people have made it clear: they do not like JD Vance, his plans to ban abortion nationwide, or his extreme views on Project 2025,” Harris-Walz campaign spokeswoman Sarafina Chitika told NBC News in a statement. “Debate Day will once again remind voters of what is at stake in this election and serve as a stark warning that a victory by Donald Trump could put Vance, America’s least popular extremist, just a heartbeat away from the presidency. “