California Sheriff Blasts Harris For Using His Image in ‘Misleading’ Campaign Ad, Says He Supports Trump

By Debra Heine
August 13, 2024

A California sheriff is slamming Kamala Harris over her ‘misleading’ political ad that fraudulently touted her border security record while using his image without permission.

The video features Tulare County Sheriff Mike Boudreaux and other local and state law enforcement officers flanking then Attorney General Harris during her visit to the Central Valley in 2014.

“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,” the sheriff said in a statement issued to Fox News Digital.

Boudreaux has spent 37 years in the Tulare County Sheriff’s Office and is currently president of the California State Sheriffs’ Association.

“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,’” Boudreaux stated.

The ad claims: “As a border state prosecutor, she took on drug cartels and jailed gang members for smuggling weapons and drugs across the border.” Harris’ campaign ad also dubiously states that she will “hire thousands more border agents and crack down on fentanyl and human trafficking.”

Boudreaux and other law enforcement officials in Southern California were outraged that Harris would take credit for fighting crime at the border when she allegedly only “undercut” their efforts.

“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,” Boudreaux told Fox News.

“When you see that advertisement, if you do a little research, you’ll find that what she’s (Harris) 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,” Boudreaux said. “I do not support her.”

Harris reportedly came to the Valley in 2014 to take credit for “a years-long investigation into a multi-national drug operation, with ties to Mexican drug cartels and prison gangs,” that was done by local law enforcement.

According to the sheriff, 11 people were arrested, including suspected “kingpin” Jose Magana of Dinuba in that case.

“The truth is, Harris never cared about the cartels and did nothing to stop people from illegally crossing the border,” Boudreaux said.

The sheriff made note of Harris’ haughty attitude during the 2014 visit.

“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,” Boudreaux said. “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.”

Boudreaux’s political action committee, Golden State Justice, also issued a scathing statement blasting Harris’ new campaign ad.

“As Attorney General, Kamala Harris undercut efforts by California law enforcement officials to stop criminals from flooding our state with guns and drugs across the border,” the statement read.

“She repeatedly defunded and shuttered task forces designed to protect our residents, leaving the Valley and our state vulnerable,” the statement continued. “Kamala’s sad attempt to paint herself as tough on the border by implying my support – and the support of neighboring law enforcement leaders—is pathetic.”

The statement concluded by saying “a politician crowding the podium at a press conference clearly hasn’t solved our border crisis. Neither has Kamala Harris.”

Tulare County District Attorney Tim Ward, who is also featured in the ad, was also enraged by the video.

“The hypocrisy knows no bounds. It’s disingenuous and her campaign ad, somehow now, touting her reputation as a prosecutor as a positive thing, she was attorney general under three of the worst tragedies that had befallen the citizens of the state of California,” Ward told Fox News.

Ward concurred with Boudreaux about using their images in a campaign ad without permission, saying that it should have been a “professional courtesy” to let them know about it.

“We’re not hard people to find or to contact. Simple professional courtesy would have been warning us that it was going to be used. And I think that we are well within our rights to clarify the records,” Ward said.

“Just as Sheriff Boudreaux said, I do not in any way want the use of that photo to be construed as support of her (Harris) either in her candidacy, current candidacy, or even in her tenure as attorney general of the State of California.”

In an interview Tuesday with Fox News, Boudreaux said Harris showed up in 2014 “for a sound bite, didn’t shake anyone’s hands and she quickly left the briefing room.”

He said law enforcement officials in Southern California are “very familiar” with Harris’ record and her campaign ad was “deceptive to say the least.”

The sheriff added, “I just wanted to come out and say that for me as the sheriff or Tulare County looking out for victims, looking for someone who’s going to support criminal justice and law enforcement, that is best represented by Donald Trump, not Kamala Harris.”