PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — A local woman is fighting back after a political action committee used her words without consent for a campaign advertisement supporting former President Donald Trump.
In a press conference on Thursday, Kimberly Burrell, who says she’s voting for Vice President Kamala Harris in the Nov. 5 election, read a letter to Trump asking him to tell his top donors to take the advertisement down. She told reporters the commercial doesn’t represent her true feelings.
“It is disgraceful to use my words at that moment to lie to voters,” Burrell said. “You’ve stolen my voice and taken a moment of vulnerability from me. And now because of you, I am forced to defend myself to friends, to neighbors asking me why I participate in this advertising.”
Restoration PAC is the group behind the advertisement. In it, is a video of Burrell talking about the struggle to feed families on minimum wage amid inflation, followed by a clip of Harris saying, “That’s Bidenomics.”
That clip of Burrell is from a discussion between MSNBC and Philly locals impacted by gun violence. Burrell was there to discuss her son, Darryl, who died from gun violence in 2009. Burrell has been a vocal advocate against gun violence.
“It's re-traumatization,” she said. “I go on the streets on Saturdays to talk to young men that have seen this ad. It takes my credibility away. I need young men to trust us because I need them to live. So seeing this ad is horrible.”
Pennsylvania Senator Anthony Hardy Williams stood by Burrell and spoke on her behalf.
“We have reduced this conversation of pain and misery to a distorted lie in a political ad, how disgraceful and disgusting to those donors, for those people who are paying for this, who think it's about winning an election. No, it’s about being American,” he said.
Zamir Ben-Dan, an associate professor of law at Temple University’s Beasley School of Law, says one big possibility is a settlement.
“There's always a question of proving damages and proving harm, which I mean, I think she has a colorable argument in terms of her circle of family, friends, and the work that she does and kind of how this impacts that,” Ben-Dan said.
Burrell says if they don’t remove the advertisement she will consider legal action to protect her privacy.