Valerie Plame shows off CIA driving in new campaign ad

Former CIA operative Valerie Plame released an ad resembling a movie trailer on Monday, making the case to New Mexico voters why she’s running for Congress as she drives a Chevy Camaro backwards.

“I come from Ukrainian Jewish immigrants. My dad was in the Air Force, my brother almost died in Vietnam. My service was cut short when my own government betrayed me,” she narrates in the video, as a Chevy Camaro drives backwards on an empty road in rural New Mexico. 

Plame, a Democrat, is running for the seat held by Rep. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), who is running for a Senate seat.

Plame’s identity was illegally leaked by the George W. Bush administration. She called it an act of “revenge” against her husband.

The official who blew her cover, former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, was never charged. President Trump last year pardoned I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, the former George W. Bush administration official convicted in the investigation into the leak.{mosads}

But the scandal isn’t what Plame says spurred her to run for office. 

“I’m running for Congress because we’re going backwards on national security, health care and women’s rights,” she said in the video before doing a 180-degree turn in the Camaro. 

“We need to turn our country around,” she said. 

“And yes, the CIA really does teach us how to drive like this,” she adds, as she walks slowly toward the camera in a gust of dust blown up from the quick turn on the dirt road. 

The ad, titled “Undercover,” was produced by Putnam Partners, a Democratic media firm, according to Plame’s campaign. 

Its accuracy has come under fire, with The Washington Post’s fact-checker giving her claim that Libby leaked her identity three Pinocchios.

–Updated on Sept. 10 at 8:02 a.m.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this report misidentified the official who blew Plame’s CIA cover.