![Vice President Kamala Harris attends a political event on July 17, 2024, in Kalamazoo, Mich.](https://i0.wp.com/flaglerlive.com/wp-content/uploads/harris-2.jpg?resize=1000%2C667&ssl=1)
By Stephen J. Farnsworth
Public opinion polls suggest that U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris is doing slightly better than Joe Biden was against Donald Trump, but Republican attacks against her are only now ramping up.
Even as a candidate for vice president, Harris was the target of an intense barrage of conservative attacks that claimed, among other things, that she slept her way to political prominence, a common slur against women in power. The anti-Harris rhetoric is part of what a report by the Wilson Center, a nonpartisan think tank, described as a broad pattern of gendered and sexualized attacks on prominent women in public discourse.
More recently, those comments were joined by conservative attacks branding Harris as the “border czar,” part of an effort to tie her to immigration, a hot-button topic for conservatives.
The intense attacks so far are only a fraction of what will come. Trump is skilled at both character assassination and political self-defense. Together, they translate into an exceptional ability to defeat his political rivals once they enter the presidential campaign arena.
But Harris also has sharp rhetorical skills that could make this a fierce election fight.
Trump’s alternative facts
As I discuss in my book “Presidential Communication and Character,” Trump is highly skilled at both channeling white working-class anger into political support for himself and at convincing his supporters to disregard the former president’s own well-chronicled professional and personal failings.
Trump’s character generates enduring contempt among liberals, but those voters will back the Democratic nominee.
In 2016, Trump defeated Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. He also defeated several well-known Republican presidential hopefuls in the primary race, including Sens. Marco Rubio of Florida and Ted Cruz of Texas and former Governors Jeb Bush of Florida, John Kasich of Ohio and Scott Walker of Wisconsin.
Earlier in 2024, Trump easily dispatched another round of highly experienced Republicans, most notably Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley.
Like those other opponents, President Biden has long endured Trump’s personal attacks. But in 2020, Trump’s original nickname of “Sleepy Joe” failed to become as effective as his insults aimed at other politicians, and Biden’s election marked Trump’s only electoral defeat.
As the 2024 election approached, Trump and conservative voices once again demonstrated their immense influence in shaping political narratives. They have convinced many voters this year to absolve Trump for his mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic, ignore that he designed a Supreme Court majority to overturn Roe v. Wade and agree with him that the 2020 election was stolen.
In an even more powerful demonstration of Trump’s skills at political marketing, polls show that many voters follow Trump’s lead and condemn Biden for U.S. economic conditions that in fact are quite good.
Unemployment is low. Job growth is booming. Infrastructure projects are underway. Inflation is much lower now than it was earlier in Biden’s term, and individual retirement accounts are flush thanks to large stock market gains.
Given Trump’s public relations mastery – and the great susceptibility of many voters to his false narratives – one can marvel about how the Biden campaign had been able to endure the never-ending rhetorical assault and keep the contest as close as surveys show it had remained until recently.
During a rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on July 20, 2024, Trump attacked both Biden and Harris, repeatedly calling Biden “stupid” and insulting his IQ. But Harris, Trump said, was “crazy.”
“I call her laughing Kamala,” Trump told the crowd. “You can tell a lot by a laugh. She’s crazy. She’s nuts.”
A former prosecutor against a convicted felon
With Biden dropping out of the campaign, political developments suggest Trump may be in for a taste of his own medicine.
Harris’ previous career as a U.S. senator who challenged Trump administration officials and the former president’s judicial nominees demonstrates that she is among the most effective Democratic officeholders when it comes to holding Republicans accountable.
Her career as an attorney general and a prosecutor also allows her to use law-and-order themes to fight back against America’s first convicted felon former president.
Biden’s departure may provide another major opportunity for Harris to reset the character assassination narrative, as the focus on age can now boomerang against Republicans. Trump now holds the record as the oldest major-party nominee for president, and a key issue that he used against Biden is likely to be turned back toward the former president.
For voters, it promises to be a scorched-earth campaign season.
Stephen J. Farnsworth is Professor of Political Science and Director of the Center for Leadership and Media Studies at the University of Mary Washington.
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NJ says
More “BULLSHIT” from a Marxist/Socialist “expert”!! Biden/Harris have “given” Americans Inflation, No Security at Border, and a FAILED Foreign Policy ( including Russia INVADING Ukraine, a Nuclear Armed Iran which is Supporting Attacks Against Israel&Allied Shipping, and Communist China Preparing to Invade Taiwan while Destroying Coral Reefs to build Island Military Bases in the South China Sea which the United Nations has Declared an Illegal Action)! America First Supports Peace Thru Strength=World Peace! NO more Endless Stupid Wars that do NOT protect America’s National Security!
Deirdre says
I’d LOVE to see a Harris Trump debate, she might point out that you can’t abort a baby after it’s born, for example. She would wipe the floor with him, Biden could only defend his golf game.
Thank God he dropped out! I just hope she doesn’t pucker up to Netanyahu when he demands more weapons and money to start World War III, and to finish off the Palestinians.
I’m enraged that he’s been welcomed as our honored guest, he’s a twisted psychopathic monster, a war criminal, and his invitation leaves no doubt this ethnic cleansing is part of the American agenda as well. Despicable.
AIPAC and the munitions industry certainly get their moneys worth, I just hope Harris hasn’t been bought and sold.
She’s in a sticky position as she has to support Biden’s policies as vice president, but it’s hard to believe anyone would go as far as Biden has with no red line ever. It would be refreshing to have someone with a brain in the big chair.
Imagine if she picked Whitmer? I already saw one politician (republican) accusing her of getting this opportunity because she’s black. So hateful and ridiculous, it’s time we had a woman in the White House.
I personally don’t care about her color or ethnicity, it’s not about the optics, but I feel sure she will bring back many people of color and women. If she wants the young vote she’ll have to end this nightmare in Gaza. Fingers crossed for the next month, we have hope now.
I would never have voted for genocide Joe or Trump, and women’s rights are becoming a thing of the past with right wing extremists. I think she’s just what we need at this time in Washington. Let the insults fly, no surprise.
Jackson says
Traitor Trump is toast… Game over! All your bases belong to us! You have died of dysentery!
Trump cannot, with every fiber of his being, get over Kamala being BiPoc, and top that with Kamala being female, and we are talking complete meltdown… He just cannot process that in any human way. And Trump is not alone in this, the entire GOP is right there with him… They are all melting down right now. This is by far, their worst nightmare come true.
All of the masks they hide behind melt in the very presence of Kamala, exposing all the ugly that they are. This is nothing new for Kamala, this is business as usual for all BiPoc women… She is more than prepared for it, and they are not.
This is going to be a massive massive win for democrats. Republicants are going to have a hard time organizing a klan potluck after this beat down.
Yes! Please! I would love a second cup of MAGA tears!!! A toast to 8 years of President Harris!!!
Chicken, geezer, tv, loser, jail.