WASHINGTON: Republican leaders are warning party members not to use racist and sexist attacks on Vice President Kamala Harris, as they and former President Donald Trump's campaign struggle to adjust to the reality of a new Democratic rival less than four months before Election Day.
In a closed-door meeting of House Republicans on Tuesday, National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Richard Hudson called on lawmakers to criticize Harris over her role in the Biden-Harris administration's policies.
“This election is going to be about policy, not people,” House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters after the meeting.
“This has nothing to do with Kamala Harris personally,” he added. “And her race or gender has nothing to do with this.”
The warnings point to new risks for Republicans running against Democrats who would become the first woman, black woman or South Asian-American to win the White House, particularly given Trump's history of racist and sexist attacks, which could upset voting groups that influence who they vote for, such as suburban women, voters of color and young people whom Trump's campaign has been trying to appeal to.
The warning comes after some Trump campaigners and allies began accusing Harris, a former district attorney, attorney general and senator, of being a “DEI” contractor, which stands for diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
“Intellectually, it’s really the lowest of the low,” Wyoming Rep. Harriet Heckman said in a TV interview. “I think she was hired for a DEI role, and I think that’s what we’re seeing, and I don’t think there’s anyone else.”
Since Biden announced he was leaving the campaign, Republicans have launched a flurry of attacks on Harris, including trying to link her to Biden’s most unpopular policies and his handling of the economy and the southern border. Trump campaign officials and other Republicans have accused Harris of being complicit in covering up Biden’s health problems, and they have also dug into her record as a California prosecutor, trying to accuse her of being tough on crime.
Johnson said both Trump and Harris have a record on White House policy and said voters can compare how families were under Trump to what they are now under Biden.
“She is a co-owner, co-author and co-conspirator in all the policies that got us into trouble,” Johnson said.
Biden announced Sunday that he was dropping out of the race. In a memo on the state of the race on Tuesday, Trump campaign pollster Tony Fabrizio argued that the fundamentals of the campaign have not changed, as Harris appears more likely to be chosen as the Democratic nominee.
“Democrats’ ousting of one nominee in favor of another will do little to reduce voters’ dissatisfaction with the economy, inflation, crime, open borders, housing costs, or concerns about two foreign wars,” he wrote. “Importantly, voters will learn about Harris’s dangerously liberal record before she becomes a Biden ally.”
In a similar message, Hudson told members at Tuesday’s meeting that the NRCC is focusing on Harris being more progressive than Biden and essentially “owning” all of the government’s policies, according to a person familiar with the conversation who requested anonymity to discuss the matter.
Sen. Steve Danes, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, echoed the criticism, saying Harris is “too liberal.”
“She wasn’t an Irish Catholic girl growing up in Scranton. She was a liberal from San Francisco,” Danes said.
Trump made a similar argument in a call with reporters on Tuesday.
“She’s like Biden but much more radical. She’s a left-wing radical, and this country doesn’t need a left-wing radical to destroy this country. She’s much more radical than him,” he said.
“So I think she’s probably easier than Biden because he’s a little bit more mainstream, but not by much,” he added.
Later, in an interview with Newsmax, Trump claimed Harris had “ruined San Francisco,” even though she resigned as district attorney there in 2011, and called her “the worst in every way.”
“Kamala Harris is as weak, failed and incompetent as Joe Biden. She is also a dangerous liberal,” the Trump campaign said in a statement. “Not only does Kamala have to defend Joe Biden’s failed campaign over the past four years, she has to be held accountable for her terrible criminal record in California.”
Trump has a long history of making harsh and personal attacks on women, most notably former Fox News host Megan Kelly, his 2016 primary rival Carly Fiorina, and New York Attorney General Letitia James, who successfully sued him and his businesses for fraud.
Trump has criticized Harris's poor performance in the 2020 Democratic primary, saying, “That doesn't mean she's not a 'very capable' politician. Just ask her adviser, the great Willie Brown of San Francisco.” Harris dated Brown in the mid-1990s.
Stephanie Grisham, a 2016 campaign aide who served as Trump's White House press secretary for a time before splitting with him after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, said the strong, intelligent women who attacked him seem to have a special place in Trump's heart.
“She’s going to make him very angry,” Grisham predicted, adding that when Trump is attacked, he’ll “punch a thousand times harder. He can’t stop himself.”
Speaking of women, she added: “He likes to attack their appearance and call them stupid. That’s something he does all the time, and I don’t expect it to be any different.”
California Rep. Maxine Waters, a prominent member of the Congressional Black Caucus and one of the first Democrats to confront Trump, said she is well prepared for what might happen as Republicans shift their campaigns to support Harris.
“The first thing that comes to my mind is the potential attacks from Trump, the far-right MAGA groups that have already started,” Waters told the AP. “They’re going to do something terrible, something very bad.”
She predicts this approach could backfire on Trump.
“The dangerous thing is that he is so arrogant and selfish that he tramples on women, and it will come back to bite her,” she said.
The dynamics could intensify on the debate stage if Trump holds a debate with Harris, which he said Thursday he would do.
Republican pollster Neil Newhouse says Trump is unlikely to debate Harris in the same way he debated Biden or in the same way he debated fellow Democratic rival Hillary Clinton in 2016.
“I don’t think Trump can debate Kamala Harris with the same tone that he debated Hillary Clinton. Kamala Harris doesn’t have the same negative attitude that Hillary has, and she’s a newcomer to politics,” he said. “It’s probably a matter of caution.”
