EDITORIAL: Harris presents opportunity for Trump
The great Democratic reset has launched to much enthusiasm among progressives and their numerous media stenographers. The Republican retool has been a mixed bag.
The announcement that President Joe Biden would drop out of the race just 15 weeks before the November election left both parties scrambling. Democrats quickly fell in line behind Vice President Kamala Harris as their new nominee. Republicans who had prepared for a campaign against the elderly and failing Mr. Biden suddenly had to revamp their strategy with little time to waste.
GOP standard-bearer Donald Trump responded in characteristic fashion: with insults. In the past week, he has lambasted Ms. Harris at rallies, calling her, among other things, “dumb as a rock.” His schoolyard nicknames include “Laffin’ Kamala” and “Lyin’ Kamala.”
This won’t help Mr. Trump appeal to the voters who will decide this election. To regain the presidency, he must convince moderate and undecided Americans in vital swing states — including Nevada — that he is the best person to lead the nation going forward. That requires emphasizing unity and policy, not wallowing in the muck engaging in name-calling and rehashing past grievances.
Ms. Harris should not be exempt from the harsh rhetoric of a hard-fought political campaign, of course. But her own record and her participation in the Biden presidency provide Mr. Trump with plenty of opportunity to make inroads with voters without resorting to ad hominem attacks.
He can start with the fact that the vice president is a product of the progressive California culture that has led to rampant homelessness, high crime rates and skyrocketing housing costs, eroding the quality of life and driving many residents to flee the state. Ms. Harris served only two years in the Senate prior to joining the Democratic ticket in 2020, yet she earned a reputation as one of the most left-wing members of the upper chamber. She is the candidate of leftist coastal elites, not middle America.
Despite having served as a prosecutor, she exhibited affinity for the “defund the police” lunacy and for the destructive rioters who tore through many American cities during the summer of 2020 after the death of George Floyd. She has supported a government takeover of the American health care system, embraced a Green New Deal that would require Americans to radically alter their day-to-day lives in service to bureaucratic environmental edicts and pledged support for abortion up until delivery. She backs dangerous legislation pushing compulsory unionism. Ms. Harris has said she is “open” to packing the Supreme Court and favors making Washington, D.C., the 51st state.
As part of the Biden administration, her performance has been unremarkable. Tasked with addressing the border debacle, she did nothing of significance, and chaos reigned as millions illegally poured into the country and the White House turned a blind eye. Ms. Harris supported the policies that unleashed rampant inflation in 2022 while forcing the Fed to raise interest rates, making homeownership more difficult and driving up interest charges, taking more money out the wallets of American families already struggling with sticker shock at the checkout counter and the pump.
The vice president is a neophyte on foreign policy. But her sympathies lie more with the radical leftists within her own party who have pressured the Biden-Harris administration to appease Hamas terrorists in the Middle East rather than support Israel, our longtime staunch ally in the region.
In short, Mr. Trump has a vast trove of issues he can mine to showcase Ms. Harris as a hyper-liberal who is out of touch with many Americans. The election clock ticks louder. Time for Mr. Trump to cease the taunts and aggressively wield the pickax.
