Trump Ad on Taxes Uses Deceptive Political Playbook

In a classic example of how political ads mislead viewers by using out-of-context quotes, a TV ad from former President Donald Trump’s campaign cites the New York Times as saying Vice President Kamala Harris “is seeking to significantly raise taxes.” Period, end of sentence. The rest of that sentence in the Times said: “on the wealthiest Americans and large corporations.” There’s more context that was left on the cutting room floor. The ad twice features a clip of Harris saying, “Taxes are going to have to go up.” In the July 2019 event, Harris actually said, “Estate taxes are going to have to go up for the richest Americans.” The Trump ad, released Oct. 2, leaves the false impression that Harris has said she wants to broadly raise taxes on all income groups. It assumes, without explicitly saying so, that Harris’ “plan” is to let all of the individual tax cuts in the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act expire, as they are scheduled to do at the end of 2025. But Harris, who hasn’t detailed how she would handle that expiration, has said she “will make sure no one earning less than $400,000 a year will pay more in...