MINOT — Last week, Lt. Gov. Tammy Miller ripped U.S. Rep. Kelly Armstrong — her opponent in the Republican gubernatorial primary — for using an AI-generated news source in an attack ad against her.
"Fake news might work in DC but not here," Miller says in the ad, which was titled "It's Fake."
But Miller's latest ad also has some factual problems. It's titled "Cartels," and it has Miller saying some tough things about drug crimes while blaming President Joe Biden's administration for being weak on crime and border enforcement.
"When Mexican cartels murder North Dakotans, when the fentanyl they traffic is a death sentence, it's a North Dakota problem," Miller says. "I'm Tammy Miller. Joe Biden won't do his job. I will."
"If you're here in North Dakota working for the cartel, let this serve as notice, when I'm governor we will find you and bring you to justice," she continues. In her previous campaign messaging, Miller has postured herself as something of a vigilante, frequently relating a story about protecting her family's retail store from robbers with shotguns until law enforcement showed up.
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This ad references news reports about a North Dakota family killed by gunmen working for a Mexican cartel. But there's a problem. The incident Miller is referring to happened in 2019, when former President Donald Trump, whom Miller has endorsed for a second term in the White House, was still serving his first term.
“President Trump will restore America’s safety and prosperity," Miller said in a Jan. 22 press release sent just hours after current Gov. Doug Burgum announced his decision not to seek a third term and weeks before she officially launched her own gubernatorial campaign. “North Dakotans can count on President Trump to unleash energy production, respect states’ rights, secure the southern border, and get our economy booming again. Donald Trump is the strongest candidate on the issues which matter most to North Dakota, which is why I’m glad to join Gov. Doug Burgum in endorsing President Trump.”
Biden wasn't elected until November 2020, and didn't take office until January 2021.
What's more, the attack didn't happen in North Dakota, or even the United States, but in Mexico.
The surviving family members of the victims of that attack filed a federal lawsuit in 2020.
In 2022, a federal judge ordered the cartel to pay billions to the family.
"When I saw the ad I immediately recognized the family at the beginning as my clients," former U.S. Attorney Tim Purdon, who represented the family in federal court, told me. "I was surprised since those killings occurred in 2019 and in Mexico. I was surprised to see it featured in an ad about public safety in North Dakota."
The murders "occurred on Nov. 4, 2019, in LaMora, Mexico," he said. His clients were "members of a Mormon colony in northern Mexico," and were killed alongside two other families.
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"We filed a lawsuit on behalf of one of the families. The client was David Langford. It was his children who were killed. We sued the cartels under the anti-terrorism act and received a default judgment against them. Obviously, they didn't appear in court," he said.
"We had a trial in February of 2022, it was a week long, for damages," he continued. "Liability had been established by default. The federal court in North Dakota awarded my clients $2.077 billion. I believe that's the largest judgment ever recorded in North Dakota history."
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