In the Trump vs Harris campaign former president Donald Trump is understandably struggling to totally overhaul a campaign which was virtually a no brainer when he faced Biden but which is now rapidly turning against him on multiple fronts.
That is certainly to be expected and would be a challenge to any campaign in such a situation. But, just how well is he doing?
Trump Harris Attacks
His usual initial and continuing attacks on any opponent from judge to politician or reporter is name calling. He makes fun of a person’s name or will label them something like liar of fake if he can make that stick, just like any grade school bully (I was four eyes or professor, although the latter was pretty good natured, not mean).
But after several attempts Trump has failed to find anything he can label Harris with other than by mispronouncing her name.
His most recent attempt probably cost him 90 percent of his small earlier black support when he claimed before a thousand black reporters that he didn’t know Harris was black, he thought she was Indian.
I listened to that interview and it sounded like every one of the thousand influential reporters shouted loudly and not in a friendly way at that comment.
Fact Check – Although Harris also has Indian ancestry she has always oriented as American black, even attending an all black university.
His other attack line against a tough former prosecutor and state attorney general was that she failed the law exam, she did the first time as do very many just out of law school, obviously she passed later.
Now, On To Harris Trump attacks
Having stunned the Trump campaign Harris instantly energized the main Democratic party but also turned many people who were merely voting against Trump to massive and popular support – virtually overnight.
Last Friday Harris, who is, after all now just the former Biden-Harris ticket, got enough support to be the official Democratic candidate.
One of the most recent Trump attempts to diminish her support is his silly complaint that she had referred to him, a former President, a 36 count felon, as a – wait for it, a FELON. What nerve.
But for the most part Harris is not bothering to attack Trump or his supporters, she is mainly counter punches when necessary but so many of the previous Trump campaign memes which were so powerful against a stumbling Biden was that Biden was too old.
By not attacking Trump she leaves room for formerly strong MAGA supporters and others who weren’t Biden supporters to move over to her.
Much of Trump’s strong and accurate attacks on Biden are now seen as rather unfortunate.
Now, of course Trump is the old man who often drifts off into weird talk about sharks and electric boats to fill out his constant stream of complaints how everything that went wrong for him from multiple bankruptcies, to felony convictions, to being caught running a fake University which turned out to be just a confidence game, to losing the last election were always someone else’s fault.
Trump has even forgotten at times whether he was running against Obama, Biden, or even Hillary Clinton.
That along with his repeated statement that he will be a dictator when in office and other threats that he will have opponents jailed or even killed have not brought him any new support while losing even some MAGA supporters not to mention mainstream Republicans who remember he tried to get his own vice president lynched by a mob he loudly encouraged to attack the Capital building with phrases in his speech to supporters including, “You will have an illegitimate president. That is what you will have, and we can’t let that happen….”‘If you don’t fight like hell you’re not going to have a country anymore'”
One of his most recent attacks on Biden and Harris was on the day when the most massive release of American and other illegally held foreigners from Russia including incredible negotiations with 6 allies, some of which was done by Harris’s direct discussions, twice, with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz who was asked to release a Russian hitman in prison for murder in broad daylight.
Trump ridiculed this by saying he could get them all out instantly with no trade needed if he was in office. That beggars the question if he could do it in office without any quid pro quo, he could do it today – many commentators and journalists missed that point.
The Harris reply was “So, why didn’t you get any of them free when you WERE in office?”
Harris is now in an incredibly strong position for the next election with massive new numbers of volunteers and tens of millions of donations from small players virtually every hour on top of the allredy fairly strong organization and funds held by the Biden Harris campaign.
While some say the 100 days remaining in the campaign means she can’t do a lot of campaigning, it is also true that there is less time for her to make a major mistake.
Trump vs Harris Attack by Fox
Fox, of course is making multiple complaints about how Harris, who has only been in the race for less than a fortnight hasn’t been holding multiple press conferences or attending major events while she is organizing a campaign, talking to new donors (really massive new donors), not to mention an already full schedule of events she was committed to.
Fox’s other attack line on Harris is seen as equally weak because they are attacking other media outlets for not attacking Harris’s positions or background – YET. Of course even Fox hasn’t come up with any real dirt yet so complaining that other outlets have also failed is rather ingenuous than prescient.
August 2, the 2024 Silver Bulletin presidential election forecast fount that Kamala Harris is leading by Donald Trump in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan, three critical swing states without any one of which a candidate has trouble reaching enough Electoral Collage votes.
https://www.natesilver.net/p/nate-silver-2024-president-election-polls-model
“Last update: 1:30 p.m, Friday, August 2: Despite a bad day of economic news — which worsens the model’s economic index and therefore harms the incumbent party’s chances — Kamala Harris continues to inch ahead in the forecast on the strength of fairly strong polling. She now leads Donald Trump by 1.1 points in our national polling average, and has a 47 percent chance of winning the Electoral College, putting the race well into toss-up territory.”
“Democratic pundits including John Della Volpe, director of polling at the Institute of Politics at Harvard Kennedy School, suggested progressives have previously been “catastrophically wrong” on a number of issues, which have cost Democrats.” (Politics War Room with James Carville & Al Hunt podcast).
He cited “catastrophic mistakes” including Medicare for all.
Harris can merely pledge to keep Medicare and Medicaid as is since Trump says he will destroy both which makes it strange that so many MAGA supporters look old enough to be in need of Medicare through their Social Security. Back on March 11 Donald Trump said he was certainly open to cuts to both Medicare and Medicaid and, remembering some of the Governors who support him have refused to make Medicaid available to their poorest residents.
As for the border while Trump will continue to demand better controls, anyone other than MAGA supporters who won’t consider new information, wil be reminded by the Harris campaign that while a strong bipartisan bill fixing most of the immigration border problems which was ready to run easily through Congress was blocked when Trump demanded the House Republicans not put it to a vote. Why? Simply because he needed it for his campaign.
All in all, with Harris not even yet naming a VP candidate for her ticket (top candidates are all likely to carry critical swing home states), Harris seems to have not just a bounce, not one which really should have occurred after the Republican convention but didn’t, is looking more and more like a trend, not just a bounce.
Harris is now leading Trump by 1.4 percent (45.0 to 43.6 percent), with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at 5.6 percent in FiveThirtyEight national poll averages. Biden’s final polling average was trailing Trump by -3.2 points.
https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/polls/president-general/2024/national/
The Trump anti-black attack on Harris is still resonating in the minority community.
Gymnast Simone Biles just posted on social media “I love my black job” which was after Trump claimed Harris was not black (he used to claim Obama wasn’t an American with zero evidence and a certified birth certificate no less strong than Trump’s own, just from a different State).
I don’t recall and can’t find any record of Biles ever bothering to emphasize her race in any statements thus making it a slap at Trump.
As time passes it seems former President Trump is keeping his previous supporters but failing to gain any new support from moderates and his polling lead last month was mainly a matter of so many people being against Biden.
Kamala Harris, Member of Left-Progressive Wing Cult That Lost Contact with Reality
Second Biden – Trump Power Showdown in November
