Haley campaign to air ad featuring mom of student who died after North Korea detention

Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley’s campaign will be running an ad featuring supportive words from the mother of the student who died after being detained in North Korea in 2017, in an effort to highlight the candidate’s foreign policy prowess.

The three-minute ad, scheduled to run a day ahead of the first-in-the-nation New Hampshire primary on Tuesday, shows Cindy Warmbier, Otto Warmbier’s mother, speaking during the launch of Haley’s campaign in Charleston, S.C.

Otto Warmbier was a University of Virginia student who was imprisoned after visiting North Korea on an organized tour. 

“My son, Otto, was invited to North Korea on an organized tour. He was taken hostage, tortured, and murdered by the government of North Korea,” Otto’s mother said in the ad, confirmed to The Hill by Haley’s campaign. “When we were begging the Obama administration for help, they told us to be quiet and be patient. Nikki told us the opposite. She told me it’s OK to be afraid, like I am now, but I had to push through the fear.”

While serving as the U.N. Ambassador, Haley built a strong bond with Cindy Warmbier. In the ad, Warmbier touted Haley’s “strength” and “compassion” during the difficult time for the family. 

“She told us to be loud and fight back,” the ad says. “To fight for justice. To fight for ourselves. And to fight for Otto. We passed laws in Otto’s name, seized North Korean assets, and helped close down illegal businesses run by the North Koreans.”

The ad seeks to differentiate Haley’s stance on North Korea from that of former President Trump, who has boasted about exchanging letters with dictator Kim Jong Un. Trump did criticize the dictator after Otto Warmbier’s death but later mentioned that he did not believe Kim knew about Warmbier’s mistreatment. 

“He tells me that he didn’t know about it, and I will take him at his word,” Trump said. “I don’t believe that he would have allowed that to happen, it just wasn’t to his advantage to allow that to happen.”

The ad is part of an advertising effort by Haley’s campaign and allied PACs who have doubled the amount spent on those expenditures compared to Trump’s political network. The former president’s network has intensified ad spending in the Granite State, hoping to secure the win in the state where he is polling 11.4 percent higher than second-placed Haley, according to the latest The Hill and Decision Desk HQ aggregate of polls. Trump sits at 46.7 percent, while Haley is at 35.3 percent.