You won’t see this TV ad in California, but it’s all over the swing states, dredging up a 2008 incident where an undocumented immigrant whom Kamala Harris released on drug charges committed a purse-snatching that ended in the victim’s skull being fractured.

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

But Trump’s political action committees (PACs) are taking to TV ads to do it for him. And KPIX reports on a new TV ad from the Make America Great Again PAC that slams Harris over a 2008 incident involving a man facing drug charges who was in the country illegally. The ad is playing in swing states, though not in California, and is seen below.

"I was robbed," actual 2008 SF robbery victim Amanda Kiefer says in the ad. "They tried to run me over with the getaway car. They tried to kill me, right over here."

A narrator’s voice then says in dark tones, "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. Namely, the implication that ABC News ran a headline on this story declaring “Drug dealing illegal released by Kamala Harris.” That does not seem like a headline ABC News would run. And wait a minute, the story is shown as having run on July 29, 2024, at which point Harris had not been San Francisco district attorney for 23 whole years.

We took the liberty of finding that actual ABC News article, which did run on July 29, 2024. But its real headline reads “Victim of undocumented immigrant’s 2008 attack, now cited by Trump allies, swipes 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 put a drug-dealing illegal alien into a jobs program instead of into prison. Four months later, the illegal alien robbed a 29-year-old woman, mowed her down with an SUV, fracturing her skull and ruining her life.”

And ABC News actually dug into the story. The basics are true, that in July 2008, Amanda Kiefer did have her purse snatched in Pacific Heights by 20-year-old undocumented immigrant Alexander Izaguirre. He then jumped into a waiting SUV, whose driver ran Kiefer down and fractured her skull. Izaguirre had previously been arrested on drug charges, but was put into a work diversion program called Back on Track instead of jail.

Harris has since noted she regrets allowing Izaguirre into the diversion program, and the loophole that allowed him into it. "I believe we fixed it," Harris told the LA Times in 2009. "So moving forward, it is about making sure that no one enters Back on Track if they cannot hold legal employment." (Izaguirre couldn't have been legally employed because of his undocumented status.)

And what the commercial does not tell you is that at Izaguirre's sentencing, Harris recommended he be deported back to Honduras. He ultimately was.

Related: Willie Brown Says He'll Sue Trump If He Continues to Tell False Helicopter Story [SFist]

Image: Make America Great Again PAC