NEW YORK — For years, it has been a Republican scare tactic.
A vote to re-elect President Joe Bidenthe Republican Party often accuses, is actually a vote for Vice President Kamala Harris. It is a line of attack sometimes tinged with racist and misogynistic tones and often with macabre images.
But after Biden dismal performance in last week’s presidential debate, which prompted Democratic calls for him to step aside, what was once dismissed as a far-right conspiracy – Harris replacing Biden – may now have a chance of happening. And Republicans, including donald trumpare intensifying their attacks.
Trump and his allies have launched new lines of attack against Harris, insulting her abilities, painting her as Biden’s chief enabler and accusing her of being part of a health cover-up. It’s an effort, campaign officials insist, and it’s not a reflection of their concerns about a potential change at the top of the ticket, given Biden’s insistence on not abandoning the race.
But in a post marking Independence Day on his Truth Social website on Thursday, Trump singled out Harris, calling her a “potential new Democratic challenger” and giving her a tongue-in-cheek new nickname: “Laffin’ Kamala Harris.”
“She did poorly in the Democrats’ nominating process, starting out as number two and ending up defeated and dropping out, before even getting to Iowa, but that doesn’t mean she isn’t a “highly talented” politician! Just ask her mentor, San Francisco’s Great Willie Brown,” he wrote. ( Harris dated Brown in the mid-1990s.)
The post came after Trump campaign senior advisers Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles released a statement earlier this week that offered a different but similar nickname, calling her Biden’s “cackling co-pilot Kamala Harris.”
Trump also posted an expletive-filled video, which was first reported by the Daily Beast, in which he was captured on the golf course calling Biden a “broken old pile of trash” and declaring that he had kicked the president out of the race. (Trump, in interviews, has repeatedly said he did not expect Biden to be removed.)
“He’s dropping out of the race,” Trump said. “And that means we have Kamala. I think she will get better. She is so bad. She’s so pathetic,” he said.
Allies also joined the attacks, portraying Harris as Biden’s chief college defender and accusing her of lying to the American public.
Biden, the White House and his campaign insist he has no plans to drop out of the race. He told reporters on Friday that he was “completely ruling out that possibility.”
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre rejected the substance of the attacks against Harris, particularly Trump’s decision to invoke a decades-old relationship.
“I think it’s disgusting, I think it’s disturbing,” Jean-Pierre told reporters Friday aboard Air Force One. “She must be respected in the role she plays as vice president. She should be respected like every other vice president before her who has been in that room. It’s terrible, I’m going to be careful here, that a former president would say that about a current vice president. And we should call this out – it’s not okay.”
It remains unclear how Harris would fare against Trump, compared to Biden. Replacing a candidate so late in a presidential cycle – let alone a sitting president who has already made it through the Democratic Party primaries – would be unprecedented in modern history, and the mechanics are complicated It is potentially confusing.
Polls show that Harris’ favorability ratings are similar to those of Biden and Trump. A June AP-NORC poll found that about 4 in 10 Americans have a favorable opinion of her. But the percentage of those who have an unfavorable opinion is slightly lower than that of Trump and Biden, and about 1 in 10 still have no opinion about her.
Harris, 59, would represent a stark generational contrast to Trump, who is 78 and also showing signs of aging. As the first woman, first person of color and first person of South Asian descent to serve as vice president, she would also chart a potentially barrier-breaking candidacy that could attract support from women, minority voters and younger people – groups that Trump has worked with to make significant advances.
Harris has also been the Biden administration’s leading voice on abortion rights, a buoyant issue for Democrats since the overturn of Roe v. Wade. Wade, who could again motivate participation this fall.
The Trump campaign, however, said it was confident in Trump’s chances, regardless of his opponent, and rejected the idea that Harris could pose a greater challenge to Trump, seeing her as a more polarizing figure than the president.
“President Trump will beat any Democrat on November 5th because he has a proven track record and an agenda to Make America Great Again,” LaCivita and Wiles said in their statement.
A campaign official suggested that the focus on Harris was more a reflection of the current media focus on the Democratic ticket than a belief that she will ultimately replace Biden.
While the party has plenty of opposition research on Harris ready thanks to her 2020 campaign and her years as vice president, ultimately, they argue, Biden’s record is Harris’s record, and if she were to replace Biden, Trump’s aides would not face an entirely different race.
Harris, for example, was chosen by Biden to lead the administration’s response to the border crisis, tying it to one of his weakest issues. And if he drops out, they argue, voters will have trouble trusting the administration, Harris and the press for not clarifying Biden’s weaknesses sooner.
“The economy is still the economy, the border is still the border, there are still global conflicts,” said Trump campaign spokeswoman Danielle Alvarez. “And changing the person at the top of the ticket doesn’t change those realities for American voters.”
___ Associated Press writers Linley Sanders and Josh Boak contributed to this report from Washington.
