vice president Kamala Harris appears to have adopted a clever strategy to deal with the (rather ironic) appeals of his followers for donald trump to be imprisoned.
At Harris rallies, her supporters occasionally chanted “lock him up” when she referred to the several criminal cases against the former president. The chant appears to combine the irony of using the phrase popularized at Trump rallies against the candidate he pushed false allegations of criminality against Democrats like Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden, along with an expression of a very real desire to see Trump detained responsible for their actions.
But you may have noticed that Harris, a former prosecutor, never encouraged the singing. Instead, she waited for the sound to pass before continuing with her speech.
I suspect she did this mainly out of respect for the administration of justice. Even though she he does happen to want to see Trump get prison time as a result of being found guilty on 34 criminal chargesIt would not be smart – politically or legally – for her to say that. And I suspect she doesn’t want her followers to seem as angry as Trump’s, despite her conviction that he should go to prison. from him criminal conviction.
I was impressed with how she responded to those cries, reiterating that her campaign is about more than defeating Trump. “This campaign – our campaign – is not just a fight against Donald Trump,” she said at her Philadelphia rally this week. “Our campaign – this campaign – is a fight for the future.”
Harris put a twist on that message when chants of “lock him up” erupted during her speeches in Wisconsin It is Detroit on Wednesday, saying in both speeches: “The courts will handle it” and “We will beat him in November.”
It’s a smart move, actually. This puts Harris above the fray, but doesn’t diminish the energy of his followers. And it is aimed at voters who may want something to motivate them this November, beyond accountability for Trump and his illiberalism.
This article was originally published in MSNBC.com
