New Trump PAC ad attacks Kamala Harris over 2008 incident when she was San Francisco district attorney

You won’t see this TV ad in California, but it’s in every key swing state, bringing to light a 2008 incident in which an undocumented immigrant, who Kamala Harris had released on drug charges, committed a purse snatching that left the victim with a fractured skull.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has struggled to define his opponent Kamala Harris since Joe Biden dropped out of the race, and that could become more difficult after Harris’ well-received convention speech.

But Trump’s political action committees (PACs) are using TV ads to do it for him. And KPIX reports on a new TV ad from the Make America Great Again PAC that blasts Harris over a 2008 incident involving a man accused of drug trafficking who was in the country illegally. The ad is airing in key states, but not California, and can be seen below.

“I was robbed,” Amanda Kiefer, a real-life victim of the 2008 sci-fi heist, says in the ad. “They tried to run me over with the getaway car. They tried to kill me, right there.”

A narrator’s voice then says in a somber tone, “Amanda’s attacker was an illegal immigrant drug dealer, arrested twice before.”

We’re going to take issue with a few things in this ad. Notably, the implication that ABC News ran a headline on this story that decried “Kamala Harris’ illegal drug trade.” That doesn’t sound like a headline ABC News would run. And wait a minuteThe story is presented as having aired on July 29, 2024, by which time Harris had not been San Francisco’s district attorney for 23 years.

We took the liberty of finding this ABC News article, which appeared on July 29, 2024. But its real headline is “Victim of 2008 attack by undocumented immigrant, now cited by Trump allies, lashes out at Harris.” The language is apparently taken from a Trump quote, not an ABC News headline. Trump is quoted as saying at a rally: “As district attorney in San Francisco, Kamala placed a drug-dealing illegal alien in a jobs program instead of sending him to prison. Four months later, the illegal alien robbed a 29-year-old woman, ran her over with an SUV, fracturing her skull and ruining her life.”

And ABC News actually dug into the story. The facts are true: In July 2008, Amanda Kiefer had her purse stolen in Pacific Heights by Alexander Izaguirre, a 20-year-old undocumented immigrant. He then jumped into a waiting SUV, whose driver hit Kiefer and fractured her skull. Izaguirre had been arrested on drug charges before, but was placed in a diversion program called Back on Track instead of being jailed.

Harris has since said she regrets allowing Izaguirre into the diversion program, as well as the loophole that led to his entry. “I think we’ve fixed that,” Harris told the LA Times in 2009. “So going forward, it’s going to be about making sure that nobody gets into Back on Track who can’t get a legal job.” (Izaguirre couldn’t have been legally employed because of his undocumented status.)

What the ad doesn’t say is that when Izaguirre was sentenced, Harris recommended that he be deported to Honduras. Which was ultimately done.

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Image: “Make America Great Again” PAC