{"id":668,"date":"2023-08-22T21:05:22","date_gmt":"2023-08-22T21:05:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsflashheadline.com\/?p=668"},"modified":"2023-08-22T21:05:28","modified_gmt":"2023-08-22T21:05:28","slug":"gop-hopefuls-raise-prospect-of-president-harris-as-way-to-undercut-biden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsflashheadline.com\/index.php\/2023\/08\/22\/gop-hopefuls-raise-prospect-of-president-harris-as-way-to-undercut-biden\/","title":{"rendered":"GOP hopefuls raise prospect of \u2018President Harris\u2019 as way to undercut Biden"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Republican presidential candidates are increasingly making Vice President Kamala Harris<\/a> their prime target as they jockey for attention from voters, focusing on the No. 2 Democrat rather than President Joe Biden<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In statements, speeches, televised interviews and emails, they suggest that a vote for Biden, who would be 82 at the start of his next term, would really be a vote for an even more unpredictable and dangerous presidency under Harris, 22 years his junior.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was all too eager to get into an extended back-and-forth with Harris in recent days when the Florida governor defended the state\u2019s new Black history curriculum after Harris panned the history standards as \u201cextremists\u201d just \u201cpushing propaganda on our children.\u201d That spurred a multi-day back-and-forth between DeSantis and Harris that reached a point where DeSantis\u2019s office published a letter inviting the vice president to debate him in Florida (Harris declined).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was the latest example of DeSantis\u2019 \u2013 and other candidates\u2019 \u2013 eagerness to throw down with the vice president. They want to contrast themselves not just with each other or Biden, but Harris, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The differences can be seen in Harris\u2019 own campaigning, which has involved focusing on issues where Republicans and Democrats share virtually no middle ground. On the same day that nearly the entire GOP field attended the Lincoln Day Dinner in Des Moines, she traveled to the same city to discuss abortion rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s not unheard of for a presidential campaign to take aim at an opposing campaign\u2019s vice presidential pick. In 2004, the George W. Bush reelection campaign went out of its way to portray then-Sen. John Edwards as a policy lightweight. And in the 2008 presidential race, then-Sen. John McCain liked to mock Biden as \u201cJoe the Biden\u201d in stump speeches. Democrats at the time warned that if McCain won, then-Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin would be one heartbeat away from the presidency \u2013 akin to the argument being made by Republicans about Harris and Biden now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ad Feedback<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnyone is better than President Kamala Harris. Anyone,\u201d former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley said during an appearance on Fox News in July.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She was asked whether she meant Biden. She didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWell, I think it\u2019s President Harris\u2026 A vote for President Biden is a vote for Kamala Harris,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Similarly, during a June stop in Georgia, DeSantis offered the specter of a Harris presidency as something worse than a second Biden term.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re running to win and to deliver, and that\u2019s really the only reason to run, and I feel compelled to do it, because I think that if we, if we muff this one and Biden gets in again \u2013 heck you may end up with Kamala as president.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In an April town hall in New Hampshire, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie went even further, linking voting for Trump to Harris becoming president.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd let me promise you that he is the nominee in 2024, Joe Biden will be the president in 2025 at 83 years old. If you think his act looks bad now, wait until he\u2019s 83 and 84 and 85 and 86. And by the way, in case he doesn\u2019t. You get Kamala Harris. A vote for Donald Trump is a vote for Kamala Harris,\u201d Christie said. \u201cBecause by the tables, it\u2019s more likely than not that Joe Biden won\u2019t make it. So if you\u2019re okay with Kamala Harris, that\u2019s fine. That\u2019s your call. It\u2019s your choice.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The prospect of Harris becoming president is really the core reason Republicans are making these attacks, said Mike DuHaime, a top Republican strategist advising Christie\u2019s presidential campaign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMost VPs are not popular with the other party. Dick Cheney wasn\u2019t popular with Democrats. Al Gore wasn\u2019t popular with Republicans. So it\u2019s not like anything new that she\u2019s unpopular with the opposing party,\u201d DuHaime said. \u201cWhat\u2019s new is that people think there\u2019s a more legitimate chance of her actually ascending to the presidency than previous VPs and anyone that I can remember.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The attacks are also coming as the both the president and vice president deal with low approval numbers. A SSRS\/CNN poll from July found Harris\u2019s approval numbers underwater with 57% disapproving of her while 42% approving of her. The same poll found Biden\u2019s own approval numbers in almost the exact same place \u201355% disapproved and 44% disapproved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s very little political cost to attacking her \u2013 especially as she tries to raise her profile,\u201d Republican strategist Alex Conant said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Democrats write these attacks off as something meant to just stoke up the Republican primary electorate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a GOP base aversion play more than anything else,\u201d Democratic pollster Cornell Belcher said. \u201cIt\u2019s politics 101: she, because of who she is and what she represents, she is a great strawman(woman)\/ boogieman to play off of and that\u2019s what you want when campaigning. Being against the most prominent national current symbol of diversity and feminist power is a no brainer.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The White House and the Biden campaign did not comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Harris herself has shifted her strategy, as demonstrated by her back-and-forth with DeSantis this week. As CNN reported previously<\/a>, the White House and the campaign are looking to capitalize on confronting what they view as Republican extremist attacks on personal freedoms and rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe will not stop calling out and fighting back against extremist so-called leaders who tried to prevent our children from learning our true and full history,\u201d she said during an event in Florida this week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Harris\u2019 Republican critics like to say she bungled one of the biggest assignments in her policy portfolio: immigration and the US-Mexico border, an important topic for Republican voters. They also note that she\u2019s prone to unforced errors, like when she went to West Virginia to promote the Biden administration\u2019s Covid-19 stimulus proposals but didn\u2019t let West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin know ahead of time, or when she misspoke and said the United States had to \u201creduce population\u201d to combat climate change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGOP candidates who have a strong, effective message will use Harris as a news hook to attack Biden because she\u2019s made headlines saying crazy things like \u2018the border is secure,\u2019\u201d Gail Gitcho, a Republican strategist who served as then-Gov. Mitt Romney\u2019s 2012 presidential communications director, said in an email. \u201c\u2026Using the #2 on the ticket as a way to chip away at the top of the ticket. Republicans view her as someone who can mangle a message and create viral statements \u2013 not unlike what Dan Quayle and Sarah Palin were to Democrats.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, there\u2019s one key Republican who hasn\u2019t spent much time criticizing Harris. Former President Donald Trump, the primary\u2019s frontrunner, has focused more on DeSantis and Biden on the campaign trail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But that\u2019s been during primary season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If Trump gets the GOP nomination again, he\u2019s likely to split some of his criticism between Biden, his Republican critics, and Harris as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s going to be a contrast that whoever the nominee is is going to make,\u201d DuHaime said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Republican presidential candidates are increasingly making Vice President Kamala Harris their prime target as they jockey for attention from voters, focusing on the No. 2 Democrat rather than President Joe Biden. In statements, speeches, televised interviews and emails, they suggest that a vote for Biden, who would be 82 at the start of his next term, would really […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":669,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-668","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsflashheadline.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsflashheadline.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsflashheadline.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsflashheadline.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsflashheadline.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=668"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newsflashheadline.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":670,"href":"https:\/\/newsflashheadline.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668\/revisions\/670"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsflashheadline.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsflashheadline.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsflashheadline.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsflashheadline.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}