With a new opponent in the fray, the Donald Trump camp has altered the tactics of the presidential race, with Kamala Harris facing attacks not only for her policies but also for her race and gender. Republican nominee Trump has reworked the entire campaign now to face not an 81-year-old white man but a 59-year-old black woman.
Trump already broke the norm on Tuesday, speaking to reporters on a conference call to underscore his campaign's line of attack on the border, saying Harris was partially responsible for a record flow of migrants. "As a result of her dangerously extreme immigration policies, the largest invasion in history is now taking place at our southern border, and it’s getting worse, not better," he said.
"Lyin’ Kamala Harris destroys everything she touches!" Trump said during a series of jabs Tuesday on his Truth Social account.
However, his allies are going after everything, from Harris's gender to skin colour to even "cackle", reminiscent of the Trump-Hillary Clinton battle in 2016, where everything from Clinton's qualifications, look, and voice were scrutinised.
Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tennesse, took to X to call Harris a 'DEI vice president', a jibe on workplace policies that promote 'Diversity, Equity and Inclusion'. "When you go down that route, you take mediocrity, and that’s what they have right now," Burchett told CNN.
Pro-GOP media persons too lashed out at Harris as Sebastian Gorka, a host on the conservative network Newsmax, stating Harris was going to be the nominee "because she’s female and her skin colour is the correct DEI colour." Gorka, who served in the Trump administration, said Harris "cackles like an insane woman."
Fox News host Jesse Watters said Harris secured Hillary Clinton’s endorsement, "obviously, because she’s a woman."
Richard Grenell, U.S. ambassador to Germany in the Trump administration, too called Harris a part of the "revolving door of DEI appointments from the straight white male governor, who hands out appointments to keep different groups happy and at bay." He was referring to California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat. "Kamala Harris is a product of this whole system. She’s very far left, unvetted and untested."
Also read: The wonder that is Kamala
A clip that showed Trump's running mate J D Vance questioning Harris’ leadership in 2021 because she did not have biological children has also resurfaced.
Vance made the statement during his bid for the Senate in Ohio. In a Fox News interview, Vance referred to Democrats as "a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable, too." "How does it make any sense that we've turned our country over to people who don't really have a direct stake in it?" asked Vance.
The clip went viral after Harris announced her bid for the nomination. Hillary Clinton too shared it in a Tuesday post on X: "What a normal, relatable guy who certainly doesn’t hate women having freedoms," she added.
