Trump campaign prepares attack plan against Harris in case Biden withdraws
GRAND RAPIDS, Michigan – Donald Trump’s campaign is preparing a major effort to attack Vice-President Kamala Harris if US President Joe Biden steps aside as the Democratic Party’s nominee, including a wave of advertisements focusing on her record in her current office and in California, according to two people briefed on the matter.
The Trump team has prepared opposition research books on Ms Harris, 59, and has similar dossiers on other Democrats who could become the nominee if Mr Biden drops out of the presidential race.
But the bulk of the preparations so far has been focused on Ms Harris, including a recently concluded poll testing her vulnerabilities in a general election contest, according to the two people.
The Trump team’s attention on Ms Harris is based on its assumption that if Democrats were to bypass the first black woman to serve as US vice-president, it would drive even deeper divisions in the party and risk alienating their base of black voters.
Trump allies have also begun examining the records of Democratic governors who are considered potential running mates for Ms Harris.
Advisers to the former US president are paying especially close attention to Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro – the state the Trump campaign is most focused on winning to block the Democrats’ path to the White House.
A Trump campaign spokesperson did not respond to an e-mail seeking comment.
Since Mr Biden’s disastrous debate performance on June 27, Trump and his political operation have softened their criticism of the President, hoping he stays politically viable until the party formally nominates him and it is too late to replace him without major legal hurdles.
Trump’s senior team preferred that Mr Biden, 81, remained in the race, believing his low approval numbers, and voters’ widespread doubts about his age and cognitive fitness represent the former president’s best chance at reclaiming the White House.
After the debate, the Trump team decided to hold back advertising that could further damage Mr Biden, according to one person briefed on the Trump campaign’s internal discussions who was not authorised to speak publicly.
A change at the top of the ticket could throw a remarkably stable race into chaos – particularly if Ms Harris, who could be the first black woman elected US president, becomes the nominee.
Some Trump aides say privately that Ms Harris might be better at delivering certain messages than Mr Biden has been, particularly on abortion rights, an issue that galvanised Democrats in the 2022 midterm elections.
And as a former prosecutor, she may be positioned to make a sharp argument about Trump’s criminal indictments, including his conviction in New York City on charges that he falsified business records to conceal a hush-money payment to a porn actress in 2016.
But they also believe Ms Harris will have to own every unpopular Biden-era policy, which will cancel out the gains she might make. In particular, the Trump team plans to attack her over the border crisis, one that the US President tasked her with finding the “root causes” of.
Aides to Ms Harris have said that Trump has distorted her role, and have noted that regardless, border crossings have fallen since a Biden administration curtailing of asylum.
They are also looking to define her based on her tenure as a senator in California and, before that, her time as the state’s attorneygeneral and as the district attorney of San Francisco, where her record during her 2020 presidential campaign was criticised alternately as too conservative or too lenient towards first-time drug offenders.
Republicans have long criticised Ms Harris. She has been on the receiving end of similar Republican attacks, particularly about the border and Mr Biden’s acuity, for years.
And despite not rolling out videos or signs, several Republicans made her part of their focus during their convention this past week, mentioning her both in conjunction with Mr Biden and also on her own.
A recent New York Times/Siena College poll found Ms Harris in a slightly stronger position against Trump than the President. The poll, however, was completed before the assassination attempt on Trump.
Still, Mr Jim Hobart, a pollster whose firm, Public Opinion Strategies, is helping to conduct NBC’s bipartisan poll, said Ms Harris is starting from a fairly defined place nationally.
He said that in the most recent survey, “50 per cent of voters already have a negative opinion of Harris – just 32 per cent have a positive opinion”.
He added: “Could those positive numbers improve if she is the nominee? Sure. But remember, she has never shown herself to be a particularly skilled candidate.”
He pointed to her narrow win in the 2010 attorney-general’s race, and the bust that was her presidential campaign in 2020.