As Democratic operatives gathered in Philadelphia for a triumphant convention last week, allies of Donald Trump were moving to undercut Hillary Clinton. The super PAC Rebuilding America Now started airing an attack ad called “Outsourcer” in key swing states from Florida to Pennsylvania, claiming that Clinton, in a speech behind closed doors in New Delhi, had said she would not combat outsourcing. The ad also claims she accepted $1 million in donations from Indian donors in 2008. “The outsourcing will continue,” she says in one of the spliced-together clips, with Indian music playing in the background.

According to The New York Post, the Clinton campaign pressured TV stations to pull the ad, arguing that public records show the opposite of what the ad claims. But campaigns rarely succeed in getting ads removed from airwaves, even when the commercials make outlandish, unsubstantiated claims. So the Clinton campaign tried a more reliable method of punching back at Trump: An attack ad using Trump’s own words against him.



In it, David Letterman brandishes a handful of silky Trump ties with pink and purple stripes, quizzing the billionaire on where they were made. “Now, these ties,” Letterman says in “Someplace,” the commercial the Clinton campaign released Wednesday. “Where are these ties made?” Trump replies: “We employ people in Bangladesh. They have to work, too.”

This first volley of attack ads could seem like typical campaign banter. But it highlights a deeper problem for the Trump campaign. Not only does Hillary Clinton have her own arsenal of attacks, but she can also dust off old clips of Trump indicting himself. The icing on the cake is that many of these clips, like the one of David Letterman, surfaced in the Republican primary and are just waiting to be introduced to a wider audience in the general election.



Since last year, the Clinton campaign and its allies have been compiling dossiers of damning material on Donald Trump. Strategists at Priorities USA Action, the Democratic super PAC that serves as Clinton’s main attack dog, told me their team has been collecting opposition research on Trump since last winter.