OOutside a fundraiser in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, a supporter of Vice President Kamala Harris held a simple white sign with crisp blue lettering. He said, “Trump is weird.”
Inside the packed theater, Harris made clear she was embracing the adjective for her Republican opponents as attacks against her mounted a week into her campaign for president. Both former President Donald Trump and his running mate, Senator JD Vance of Ohio, are trying to cast Harris, a former prosecutor, as soft on crime and illegal immigration. Vance also suggested that Harris, who is a stepmother, does not understand the needs of biological parents, having described her in 2021 as one of the “childless hotties” who “want to make the rest of the country miserable too.”
“You may have noticed that Donald Trump has resorted to some crazy lies about my record,” Harris told the enthusiastic crowd at the Berkshires fundraiser. “And some of what he and his running mate are saying, well, it’s just weird. I mean, that’s the box you put it in.
Harris and her campaign are working to quickly reset the race, in part by drawing more attention to the idiosyncrasies of Trump’s speeches and interviews, which range from nationalistic fervor to strange anecdotes about sharks and Hannibal Lecter. After an appearance on Fox News this week, Harris’ campaign released a press release that included rhetorical questions: “Is Donald Trump OK?” and “Is Trump old and really weird?”
On Friday, Harris’ campaign he wrote “JD Vance is weird and scary,” on X, formerly known as Twitter, along with a press release highlighting Vance’s past statements favoring laws to restrict access to abortion.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who is reportedly on Harris’ list of potential running mates, was the first to deploy “weird” as an attack on Trump and Vance. “These guys are just weird,” he said in MSNBC on Tuesday. “They’re running for the He-Man wife haters club or something. That’s what they do. That’s not what people are interested in.”
Harris is also now trying to portray Trump as someone who would shy away from a debate with her. Trump this week withdrew from a planned Sept. 10 debate that had originally been scheduled against President Joe Biden, before Biden dropped out and endorsed Harris.
“You may have seen that he just walked away from our debate,” Harris said Saturday at the fundraiser, where she was introduced by musician James Taylor. “I hope he reconsiders because we have a lot to talk about.”
This story originally appeared on Time.com read the full story
