Donald Trump’s campaign and some of his allies have launched a pre-emptive political attack on Vice President Kamala Harris, moving swiftly to try to discredit her amid talk among some of her fellow Democrats that she could replace President Joe Biden on the party’s 2024 presidential ticket.
Through a number of statements on social media and in the past 48 hours, it appears that Trump’s campaign and his Republican allies are preparing for an all-out attack on Harris if the 81-year-old Biden decides to end his reelection bid after his weak performance in last week’s debate.
While Biden has insisted he is not withdrawing from the race four months before the Nov. 5 election, and Harris stands firmly behind him, the Trump campaign has nothing to lose by attacking the vice president now, so if Harris emerges as the nominee, she could do so in a weakened position.
Republicans have regularly criticized Harris, 59, during Biden’s tenure, but this week’s attacks represent a sharp and coordinated escalation that appears linked to growing talk of her replacing Biden as the Democratic presidential nominee.
The National Republican Congressional Committee, which oversees House Republican races, called him a “key supporter” of Biden.
Meanwhile, MAGA Inc., a fundraising super PAC supporting Trump, released a statement calling him the “invasion czar”. In March 2021, Biden said Harris would lead efforts with Mexico and Central American countries to address illegal immigration.
Republicans have taken up the issue, accusing her of failing to stop millions of immigrants from illegally entering the US, even though she was never directly responsible for securing the southern border.
Trump campaign spokeswoman Caroline Levitt said, “Kamala Harris is incompetent. She has proven to be the weakest, worst vice president in history and has supported 100% of every disastrous policy Joe Biden has implemented over the last four years.”
The Biden campaign responded to growing criticism from Republicans but did not answer questions about whether the vice president was preparing.
“Vice President Harris is proud to be President Biden’s running mate,” Harris campaign spokesman Ryan Lake said. “No matter how many false attacks Trump and his extreme allies launch, she will continue to defend the Biden-Harris record and prosecute Donald Trump.”
The attacks on Harris by Trump’s camp are reminiscent of similar tactics used by Republican Trump, who was president from 2017-2021, to successfully undermine his main Republican rival Ron DeSantis before the Florida governor jumped into his party’s 2024 election primary race last year.
Corey Lewandowski, a longtime Trump adviser, told Reuters that Harris was politically vulnerable given her role in combating illegal immigration, among other issues, which is part of extensive research collected by the party on her record.
Trump’s unusual silence
A former senior Trump White House staffer who is still in contact with the Trump campaign said the new emphasis on Harris makes sense.
“If Joe Biden stays at the top of the ticket, from what we’ve seen, she becomes even more important,” the staffer said, pointing to her low approval ratings in opinion polls. “But if he steps aside, she’s the presumptive nominee. This is about defining her.”
Despite her consistently low approval ratings, a Reuters/Ipsos poll earlier this week showed Harris is as strong a challenger to Trump as Biden. In a hypothetical matchup, Trump held a one percentage point lead over Harris, 43% to 42%.
The outcry from Trump’s allies is a sharp contrast to the unusual silence from the usually outspoken former president. Trump has reduced his activities since Biden’s poor debate performance and has made very few public appearances or public statements.
A senior Trump campaign adviser familiar with internal discussions said, “It shows the maturity of the candidate. You can teach an old dog new tricks. He’s showing more discipline and message control.”
The Trump campaign began turning its attention to Harris even before the June 27 debate, releasing an aggressive ad online that mocked her for repeating lines in her speeches.
An online meme promoted by Republicans showed Harris repeatedly repeating the same phrase “freedom from what happened” in her statements.
Harris’s supporters say she has become an even bigger target because of her leading role in attacking Trump over abortion rights and her fierce defense of Biden during the campaign.
If Biden drops out of the race before the Democratic National Convention in August, there is no guarantee that Harris will be the nominee. But as vice president, she will likely be first in line. She will benefit from Biden’s massive campaign fund and will likely unite a large segment of Democrats around her to avoid bitter infighting within the party.
And as the first black vice president in US history, she serves as a bridge to the party’s most reliable voter group. Her background and relative youthfulness create a sharp contrast with the 78-year-old Trump.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)