Republican leaders urge colleagues to steer clear of racist and sexist attacks on Harris

Washington, Jul 24 (AP) Republican leaders are warning party members against using overtly racist and sexist attacks against Vice President Kamala Harris, as they and former President Donald Trump 's campaign scramble to adjust to the reality of a new Democratic rival less than four months before Election Day.
    At a closed-door meeting of House Republicans on Tuesday, National Republican Congressional Committee chairman Richard Hudson, R-N.C., urged lawmakers to stick to criticizing Harris for her role in Biden-Harris administration policies.
    “This election will be about policies and not personalities,” House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters after the meeting.
    “This is not personal with regard to Kamala Harris,” he added, "and her ethnicity or her gender have nothing to do with this whatsoever.”
    The warnings point to the new risks for Republicans in running against a Democrat who would become the first woman, first Black woman and first person of South Asian decent to win the White House. Trump, in particular, has a history of racist and misogynistic attacks that could turn off key groups of swing voters, including suburban women, as well as voters of color and younger people Trump's campaign has been courting.
    The admonitions came after some members and Trump allies began to cast Harris, a former district attorney, attorney general and senator, as a “DEI” hire — a reference to diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
    “Intellectually, just really kind of the bottom of the barrel,” Wyoming Rep. Harriet Hageman said in a TV interview. “I think she was a DEI hire. And I think that that's what we're seeing and I just don't think that they have anybody else.”
    Since Biden announced he was exiting the campaign, Republicans have rolled out a long list of attack lines against Harris, including trying to tie her to the most unpopular Biden policies and his handling of the economy and the Southern border. Trump campaign officials and other Republicans have accused Harris of being complicit in a cover-up of Biden's health issues, and they have been mining her record as a prosecutor in California as they try to paint her as soft on crime.
    Johnson said both Trump and Harris have records in White House policy and said voters can compare how families were doing under the Trump administration with how they're doing now under Biden.
    “She is the co-owner, co-author, co-conspirator in all the policies that got us into the mess,” Johnson said.
    Biden announced Sunday that he was withdrawing from the race. In a memo on the state of the race Tuesday, Trump campaign pollster Tony Fabrizio argued the fundamentals of the campaign had not changed now that Harris appears increasingly likely to be the Democratic nominee.
    “The Democrats deposing one Nominee for another does NOT change voters discontent over the economy, inflation, crime, the open border, housing costs not to mention concern over two foreign wars,” he wrote. “As importantly, voters will also learn about Harris' dangerously liberal record before becoming Biden's partner."
    In similar messaging, Hudson told members at the Tuesday meeting that the NRCC is focusing on how Harris is even more progressive than Biden and essentially “owns” all the administration's policies, according to a person familiar with the conversation and granted anonymity to discuss it.
    Sen. Steve Daines, who chairs the National Republican Senatorial Committee, echoed that criticism, calling Harris “too liberal.”
    “She's not an Irish Catholic kid who grew up in Scranton. She's a San Francisco liberal,” Daines said.
    Trump offered a similar argument in call with reporters Tuesday.
    “She's the same as Biden but much more radical. She's a radical left person and this country doesn't want a radical left person to destroy it. She's far more radical than he is," he said.
    “So I think she should be easier than Biden because he was slightly more mainstream, but not much," he added.
    Later, in an interview on Newsmax, Trump claimed Harris “destroyed the city of San Francisco," though she left her job as district attorney there in 2011, and called her “the worst at everything."
    “Kamala Harris is just as weak, failed and incompetent as Joe Biden — and she's also dangerously liberal," the Trump campaign said in a statement. “Not only does Kamala need to defend her support of Joe Biden's failed agenda over the past four years, she also needs to answer for her own terrible weak-on-crime record in California.” (AP) AS AS

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)