Former President Donald Trump is poised to combine his recent attacks against Vice President Kamala Harris‘s policies and personality when they meet during their first and potentially only debate before November’s election.
During a Monday phone call with reporters, the Trump campaign previewed the former president’s desire to go after Harris for being part of President Joe Biden‘s administration, for example, for being “the last person in the room” before his deadly 2021 Afghanistan withdrawal.
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The campaign also foreshadowed criticism of her when she was San Francisco‘s district attorney and California‘s attorney general, as well as the policy positions she adopted during her 2020 bid, which she and her 2024 aides have rescinded.
“Harris can’t defend her own record, let alone defending the records of everybody else,” Trump campaign spokesman Jason Miller said. “What has Kamala Harris stood for over the years, going all the way back to the beginning, with the point being is, these are dangerously liberal, liberal policy positions.”
Trump has levied several attacks against Harris since she ascended to the top of the Democratic ticket, including labeling her as “incompetent,” “crazy,” a “stone-cold loser,” and “totally inept,” among other things. He has also increasingly referred to her as “Comrade Kamala Harris” as he seeks to portray her as a radical left-wing candidate.
Trump whisperers have encouraged him to stop criticizing Harris personally, from scrutinizing her intelligence to her laugh. But others, including former Democratic Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, are imploring him to portray her policy flip-flops as a fundamental character flaw.
Gabbard, who is helping Trump prepare for Tuesday’s debate on ABC in Philadelphia after going head-to-head with Harris herself during the 2020 Democratic presidential primary, previewed the possible attack line as being “about her character.”
“That was really what I exposed in that debate in 2019 when we were both candidates running for president, was her hypocrisy and how she would say one thing and do another,” she told the Washington Examiner earlier this month. “She is a fake person who cannot be trusted and who cares only about herself and her political ambition and not about the American people.”
Gabbard’s passing comment points to a broader Trump campaign and debate strategy, which Republicans deployed against 2004 Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry. In fact, Trump campaign co-manager Chris LaCivita is an alumnus of the Swift Boat Veterans group, which undermined Kerry that election cycle.
“It’s a combination of policy flip-flopper, a la John Kerry in 2004, but really, more than that, it is that she has no real core beliefs and just lands where the political winds may blow,” University of Michigan director of debate Aaron Kall told the Washington Examiner. “That means moderate, independent voters can’t trust her to govern in any one way if she wins.”
The strategy is not without political risk, especially against the country’s first minority woman presidential nominee from a major party when Trump and his own vice presidential pick, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), are already encountering difficulties connecting with women after Vance’s own comment about the Democratic Party being overrun with “cat ladies.” Vance has apologized to cats for his remark.
The Trump campaign, however, has dismissed the prospect of political repercussions for the former president with women, contending, instead, he would win them on issues, such as the economy, immigration, and national security.
For Suffolk University Political Research Center director David Paleologos, Trump tagging Harris with that partisan language could disrupt her outreach to the political center as she seeks to reprise Biden’s 2020 coalition of support.
“Democrats and Republicans, ironically, don’t decide elections in the U.S., independents do,” the pollster told the Washington Examiner. “When you are courting those key independent voters who have made a conscious effort not to register as a Democrat or Republican in their state, you want to frame your campaign and policy positions in the same way. Otherwise, there is a disconnect and you may lose their vote.”
To that end, Lanhee Chen, who was policy director of 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney‘s campaign, argued Trump “is running as his own man, with his own view of the world, which is definitely not tethered to traditional conservative policy positions” as Harris and Democrats call the GOP extreme, citing the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025. Trump had distanced himself from the conservative think tank’s proposals.
“How and whether this is appealing to the electorate more broadly, and particularly independent voters in key swing states, remains to be seen,” Chen told the Washington Examiner.
At the same time, the main source of Trump’s own political cache is his personality as opposed to his policy.
Ed Lee, director of Emory University’s Alben W. Barkley Forum for Debate, Deliberation, and Dialogue, predicted Trump would use the debate to try to “speak to and embody strength, power, and masculinity” by describing the election as a battle of “us” vs. “them” against the backdrop of a “world that is in dire crisis and in need of a strong and resolute leader like him.”
“He will present her as weak, unintelligent, and unAmerican,” Lee told the Washington Examiner. “She will be identified as with ‘them’ — communist, immigrants, and elites — and not ‘us.’ Finally, he will present her as childishly aloof and unaware of the horrors the Biden administration has produced. Most people are surprised by Trump’s rhetorical success because they believe simplistic means deficient or ineffective. They are wrong and ignore his communication prowess at their own peril.”
Harris has sought to proactively counter Trump’s incoming attacks, specifically concerning the border, by promoting law enforcement and military endorsements and producing ads and social media posts that undercut the former president’s own record.
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But Kall, the debate coach, advised the Harris campaign that if the vice president cannot adequately explain her policy flip-flops, the problem might persistently complicate her bid as Biden’s age did his.
“The debate may not seal the deal, but for those that just don’t know enough, don’t have enough information, this is the one event that’s going to allow them to fill in the blanks,” he said. “There could be other factors, there could be another debate in October, there could be some kind of October surprise just extraneous to everything that’s happening in the Middle East or here. But it’ll probably get them leaning in one direction after the debate.”
