During the Vice Presidential forum on Tuesday, it repeatedly occurred to me that Republican JD Vance -- who won the debate -- rarely even attempted to use the genuinely extreme left-wing views of Kamala Harris and Tim Walz against them. He did so occasionally, including on abortion, prompting several lies from Walz, but for the most part, the messaging was about Harris embodying a failed status quo. There are, no doubt, strong political incentives to drive that exact narrative. Americans overwhelmingly see the country as on the wrong track. Joe Biden is an unpopular sitting president, and Kamala Harris is his co-incumbent, whom Biden has touted as handling every issue under the sun in their joint administration. Polling consistently shows a desire for change in leadership. Biden himself was on track to lose re-election, which is why his party nullified their entire primary election and forced him out, following months of aggressive lying about his deteriorating condition. That campaign of lying, in which the Vice President had a starring role, exploded on a debate stage in late June.
The Democrats are now trying to salvage the election with a profoundly underwhelming ticket that spouts vague nothingness, while going to great lengths to avoid questions and scrutiny. Kamala Harris will "turn the page" to fresh leadership, we're told, while she simultaneously and selectively using the trappings of her existing executive power to bolster her image. She's a boss lady who's in charge, but don't think too hard about what that means about the last four years of governing results. And certainly don't ask questions about it. She has no answer for it:
Q: "President Trump says that you've had four years as Vice President to do all the things you promised during the campaign, but haven't done it. Is he right?"
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) October 2, 2024
Kamala: *Spends 2 minutes rehearsing campaign talking points about "billionaires" and "an opportunity economy."* pic.twitter.com/81lxqjJsNx
Plus, there's not enough time to discuss things such as her record, you see, because there's an election to win. That was literally her spokesman's talking point recently:
WATCH: Harris spokesman Ian Sams struggles to explain what exactly Kamala will do differently despite being in office for the past 3.5 years:
— Conservative War Machine (@WarMachineRR) September 5, 2024
“We don’t have time to sit around & think about why, over the last few years, certain things may have happened or may not have happened." pic.twitter.com/hJjeTytUu1
She stands behind the Vice Presidential seal, and dons seemingly never-before-worn 'emergency jacket' costumes when the campaign desires images of her appearing to be in command. But as for the actual governing command she and Joe Biden have exerted since 2021, well, never mind that. Team Harris wants to present her as an indispensable leader within the [name redacted] administration when it suits them, but they don't want to have to grapple with their administration's unpopularity and record of failure on nearly every front. They're so committed to the incoherent bit of Harris and Walz being the outsiders and challengers that the candidates themselves have served up soundbytes that might as well be Trump ads, given the fact that their party -- and Harris herself -- are in charge, right now:
“I’m Donald Trump and I approve this message.” https://t.co/1NP24SgRBO
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) September 25, 2024
“I’m Donald Trump and I approve this message” https://t.co/H354H7JNB3
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) September 21, 2024
I understand why the Trump campaign's focus on relentlessly tying Harris to Biden-Harris. This is a change election, voters are unhappy, and she's shamelessly trying to cosplay as the non-incumbent. As I noted on television, Harris hasn't actually distanced herself from Biden in any meaningful or specific way. You'd think she'd at least have devised a small handful of bullet points about how she differs on substance or approach from her co-president, or summoned a few explanations about how she would have handled a certain things differently if she'd had the final say. But she hasn't. All we've gotten are a few meaningless slogans:
Amid various crises, it’s quite striking that Kamala Harris *still* hasn’t offered anything of substance on the question of how she differs from Joe Biden, her unpopular co-incumbent. What does she think Biden has gotten wrong? What would she have done differently? Crickets: pic.twitter.com/81z6YhEEKm
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) October 3, 2024
She enthusiastically embraced the Afghanistan withdrawal fiasco, boasting that she was the last person in the room to counsel Biden in favor of their disastrous decision, and assiduously ignoring and insulting grieving families who were affected by it. She has presided over the worst border crisis in American history, calling the border "secure" as it raged out of control. She is "very proud" of so-called 'Bidenomics,' which she's insisted "is working." She cast tie-breaking Senate votes that turbo-charged inflation. There is a lot to exploit. To wit, tight on the heels of this weeks debate, the Trump campaign released this ad about Harris' designs to raise taxes. It's a clean hit because she said it in her own words, and despite her spin about corporations and billionaires, repealing the Trump tax cuts (she opposed them and has vowed to get rid of them) would raise taxes across the board. Taxpayers and families across every income group got a tax cut under that law, about which Democrats incessantly lied, so if those cuts are reversed, every income group will face a tax hike:
🚨 NEW AD 🚨 pic.twitter.com/mqiit9lVlD
— Team Trump (Text TRUMP to 88022) (@TeamTrump) October 2, 2024
It's a good ad, on an important subject, and is entirely fair game. It's also pretty standard-issue stuff against a Democrat. 'So-and-so wants to raise taxes' has an extremely common theme in Republican attacks...basically forever. Between Vance's debate strategy and this ad, I'm just struck by how all-in Trump & Co. are on their theory of the race. They've determined -- and perhaps they're correct, and this is all data driven -- that it's a better use of their time and energy to shackle Harris to Biden, highlight the problems of the last few years, and promise improvement and change, as opposed to featuring Harris and Walz as extremists. There is a seemingly endless buffet of material, courtesy of the statements and actions of Harris and Walz themselves, from which to advance this case. The Trump camp has hit on some of it here and there, but it hasn't been the thrust of their game plan to win.
Maybe they have reason to believe that voters wouldn't be moved by Harris' many left-wing statements and proposals, and the Biden nexus is the more straightforward line of attack. But given how poorly Harris responds to rare, explicit questions about her explanation-free claimed flip-flops away from her hardcore leftist stances, I wonder if pushing much more consistently and assertively on such things isn't a mistake (granted, fracking is one area where the Trump campaign really is leaning in on her past comments, which were indeed very emphatic and unambiguous):
This answer does not address that question, or anything about her emphatic promises to ban fracking https://t.co/Vvelw5x9W7
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) October 3, 2024
Running nonstop ads blaring Harris' own radical words and positions to voters might at least force reluctant journalists to ask her about her parade of explanation-free, inauthentic 'changes of heart.' Hitting on this would further expose her as some combination of a wild-eyed radical and total phony. If Trump wins the election, his campaign's current strategy will be vindicated. I get the argument that calling Harris a continuation of Biden may feel inconsistent with hanging all of her pre-Biden-Harris administration views around her neck. But it shouldn't be too complex to argue Harris is Joe Biden, but even more left-wing. We're not seeing very much of the latter part. If Trump loses, his team's priorities and points of emphasis will be second-guessed for a long time. I'll leave you with this:
Connect the dots, if you can.
— Tim Murtaugh (@TimMurtaugh) October 3, 2024
DHS says FEMA might not have enough cash to help people through hurricane season.
But in 2 years of a new Biden-Harris program, they’ve spent $1 BILLION on housing and other services for migrants.https://t.co/BUCIKT65urhttps://t.co/YMLe1x4yDZ pic.twitter.com/dDGXeKaRnP
Will incumbent and sitting co-president Kamala Harris be asked about these priorities? Yes, that would be this Kamala Harris:
Kamala Harris slammed for skipping hurricane season preparedness briefings led by Mike Pence https://t.co/FMTJ0kg2BZ pic.twitter.com/8dAniHCD2z
— New York Post (@nypost) October 1, 2024
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