Hillary Clinton released a new ad Saturday that paints Donald Trump as unfit to be commander in chief, suggesting that he lacks the vision to handle foreign affairs.
The ad, which will air in eight battleground states, was released hours after Trump formally announced Indiana Gov. Mike Pence as his running mate and two days after a terrorist attack in France killed 84 people.
“An unsteady world will be in one person’s hands,” according to a narrator in the ad. “An unsteady world demands a very steady leader.”
The 30-second spot is a continuation of several ads that have sought to contrast Clinton’s international experience with Trump’s comments about limiting America’s involvement abroad.
In particular, the ad highlights Clinton’s efforts to reduce nuclear weapons. Trump in March suggested Japan would be better off if it defended itself against North Korea with nuclear weapons, which would reverse decades-old U.S. policy to seek nuclear nonproliferation.
Clinton’s ad also pulls out of context an exchange between Trump and CNN’s Anderson Cooper about whether Saudi Arabia should have nuclear weapons.
“Saudi Arabia, absolutely,” Trump is quoted as saying in the ad. In the full exchange, however, Cooper then asks, “You would be fine with them having nuclear weapons?”
“No, not nuclear weapons,” Trump responds. “But they have to protect themselves, or they have to pay us.”
Saturday’s ad is a continuation of previously announced eight-figure buy for ads in Virginia, Ohio, Colorado, New Hampshire, Iowa, Florida, Nevada and North Carolina. Polls out earlier this week show tightening battles in many of those states amid fallout from the Justice Department’s decision to not pursue criminal charges against Clinton for her use of a private email server at the State Department.
