Vice President Kamala Harris‘s campaign is reviving Jan. 6-driven messaging in the final weeks of the presidential election.
Team Harris initially ignored special counsel Jack Smith’s unsealed court filing about former President Donald Trump‘s behavior during the 2021 Capitol riot but is now embracing it with less than a month to go before Election Day.
“We knew it was bad. But it’s worse than we thought. Much worse than we thought,” reads the text of a new Harris campaign ad titled “Bombshell.” “He knew what he was doing. … He resorted to crimes to stay in office. And next time, there will be no one to stop him.”
The ad ends with a photo of former Vice President Mike Pence, which is then replaced by an image of Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), who has been coy about whether he would certify the results of an election.
Vance will not be in office when votes are certified next January, leaving that duty to the incumbent vice president, Harris. But Democrats are sounding the alarm about a different political figure — House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA).
If Democrats win the House of Representatives, Johnson will be gone too, likely replaced by Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY). But if the GOP keeps the House and Harris wins, Democrats fear that Johnson may interfere with the certification process on Jan. 6, 2025.
Johnson could try to throw the election back to the House under the 12th Amendment, they argue, noting that he filed an amicus brief on Trump’s behalf following the 2020 election.
“I’m concerned about this,” Rep. Dan Kildee (D-MI) told the Washington Examiner. “I mean, the notion that Congress somehow believes it can replace the will of the American people when it comes to their ultimate decision, and that is who the president will be, it clearly violates the Constitution. It clearly violates the principles of democracy.
“I am concerned that Mike Johnson, as the speaker, would preside when he is the architect of the Texas case. … To me, that’s worrisome.”
Johnson himself addressed the matter during a Sunday interview on ABC News, saying he would follow the law.
“I’m going to follow the Constitution,” the speaker told George Stephanopoulos. “Article 2 of the Constitution is very clear. Congress has a very specific role, and we must fulfill it. I’ve made a career defending the Constitution. I always have, and I’ve demonstrated over and over that we are going to do the right and lawful thing.”
Johnson has also stressed the need to turn down heated political rhetoric, saying it played a role in the two assassination attempts against Trump this year.
Even if Johnson or another Republican did try to challenge election results, the Electoral Count Act was overhauled in 2022 to make that harder. Rather than just one member, 20% of each chamber would have to sign on to proceed with an objection.
Republican strategist Dave Carney said the Harris campaign’s Jan. 6 ad is a sign that Democrats think they’re losing.
“The vast majority of people do not know who Mike Johnson is, and nobody in flyover states talks about Jan. 6 off the top of their head,” he said. “It’s a desperate attempt to try and mobilize their base, but their numbers must really be in the cellar to have to be advertising on this issue 20 days out from the election.”
Smith released a 165-page filing last week detailing allegations that Trump knowingly tried to overturn the 2020 election despite warning from members of his team, including Pence.
Trump allegedly told family members, “It doesn’t matter if you won or lost the election. You still have to fight like hell,” according to prosecutors. He also allegedly responded, “So what?” when told of Pence’s dire predicament as rioters stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Harris and the White House did not respond to a request for comment from the Washington Examiner at the time, apparently adhering to a strategy of silence on Trump’s legal problems. But that strategy appears to have changed with the release of the new ad.
Trump, by contrast, has not been silent about the matter, saying the release of Smith’s report so close to Nov. 5 amounts to election interference.
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“FOR 60 DAYS PRIOR TO AN ELECTION, THE DEPARTMENT OF INJUSTICE IS SUPPOSED TO DO ABSOLUTELY NOTHING THAT WOULD TAINT OR INTERFERE WITH SAID ELECTION,” Trump said Thursday. “THEY DISOBEYED THEIR OWN RULE IN FAVOR OF COMPLETE AND TOTAL ELECTION INTERFERENCE. I DID NOTHING WRONG, THEY DID! THE CASE IS A SCAM.”
As a former California attorney general, Harris has tried to frame the election against Trump as one between a prosecutor and a felon after a Manhattan jury convicted the former president on 34 counts of falsifying business records during a controversial hush money trial.
Marisa Schultz contributed to this report.