NEW YORK, NY - Lee Zeldin is at it again. His campaign spent thousands of dollars on an ad about crime, using footage of real incidents from across New York with the goal of instilling fear in New York voters. There was just one problem: their “New York crime” ad used video footage from Oakland, California.

After being questioned on the authenticity of the ad, the Zeldin campaign admitted that “one of [the clips] isn’t even footage of New York, but instead Oakland, Calif,” and quickly tried to backtrack by saying they’d remove the Oakland footage.

In an effort to save face, Zeldin himself confirmed at a press conference that his team remade the ad and “swapped out” the California footage once the mistake was “brought to [their] attention.” The ad is not the first time the Zeldin campaign has “discovered” that its materials included misleading information. In July, the Zeldin campaign fraudulently submitted more than 11,000 photocopied petition signatures to get on a third ballot and, after getting caught, the campaign “attributed the flawed petitions to mistakes made by ‘an entirely grass-roots effort,’” despite their own campaign manager signing off on the submission.

“Either the Zeldin campaign doesn’t know which state it’s in, or they are purposefully trying to mislead voters and–– when caught ––claim ignorance denying their involvement,” said New York State Democratic Party Chairman Jay S. Jacobs. “Zeldin’s misleading ad and attempt to defraud the electorate through his petition scheme show he’s not fit to lead New York and is only running for political gain.”