Tulare Sheriff Boudreaux Outraged He’s In New Harris Ad

A new Harris Walz 2024 ad highlighting her efforts to stop drugs at the border and border security backfired on Monday when it was revealed that one of the people seen in the ad with Harris, Tulare County Sheriff and former Assembly candidate Mike Boudreaux, had not given permission for his image to be used in the ad, and charged them with false advertising as he in no way supports Harris.

The ad itself debuted on Friday. In it, it gives a rundown on what Harris did both in California and at the federal level in stopping drugs, cartels, and other border related issues for the past several decades. The voiceover even proclaimed, “As president, she will hire thousands more border agents and crack down on fentanyl and human trafficking. Fixing the border is tough. So is Kamala Harris.”

The Kamala Harris campaign is up on TV with multiple new ads this a.m. —

This spot is focused on border security

Male voiceover:

"As president, she will hire thousands more border agents and crack down on fentanyl and human trafficking. Fixing the border is tough. So is… pic.twitter.com/qb2wS5CLml

— Medium Buying (@MediumBuying) August 9, 2024

However, the ad also featured voiced-over clips of several press conferences with different county sheriffs, border patrol agents, and other state and federal law enforcement officials. Among them was Sheriff Boudreaux. He quickly called out the Harris campaign following the release of the ad in a statement:

“In light of a recent political ad put out by Kamala Harris featuring Sheriff Boudreaux, as well as other local law enforcement, the Sheriff wants to make it abundantly clear that his image is being used without his permission, and he does NOT endorse Harris for President or any other political office,” said Boudreaux over the weekend.

In an interview with Fox News on Monday, Boudreaux clarified what happened at the event, which took place when Harris was Attorney General of California in 2014:

“As a matter of fact, I would like to point out the misleading information projected in that same political ad. In the ad, Harris claims to have spent decades fighting violent crime as a border state prosecutor. The facts are that then-California Attorney General Kamala came to the Valley in 2014 touting a years-long investigation into a multi-national drug operation, with ties to Mexican drug cartels and prison gangs.

“The appearance by Harris was all smoke and mirrors. We were in the green room. She never came in and said hello to any of us. She walked up front, gave her presser, literally walked out, never said hi to any of us. I’m disgusted because, you know, she didn’t shake hands. She didn’t say hello. And she’s taken credit for all this work that the locals did.

“How can you go in and promote that you were this tight border person when all the troops are coming across the border, and you literally are eliminating all these task forces? I mean, that completely made us mad. When you see that advertisement, if you do a little research, you’ll find that what she’s touting goes completely against what was happening at the time, so when she put that picture out there with me in it, I got really upset, that ad is all smoke and mirrors. I do not support her.”

As of Monday afternoon, the Harris campaign has yet to respond to Boudreaux’s issues with the ad. However, media experts told the Globe on Monday that he likely has little room to stand on in trying to get the ad changed or pulled down.

“Media events like that always have signs out saying that, because of so many cameras present, you are likely going to be filmed, and by entering, you give consent,” explained press setup consultant Daniel Irons to the Globe on Monday. “Something to that effect. Smaller events you have individual wavers, but to press events like that? Where people are in the background? Yeah, there’s not much you can do.

“Any political event with supporters behind the candidate or lawmaker, yeah, same deal. Big event, lots of press, not much you can do. That being said, Boudreaux being upset and then saying he was in the ad, yeah, it has happened before with those types of ads. But, in this situation, he doesn’t have much to go on. Press teams look through b-roll and it often says what kind of event it is and if they can use the footage.”