Anne Funder, whose son died from a fentanyl overdose, is angry at top Democrats, including President Biden and California Gov. Gavin Newsom, but she has expressed a particular disdain for Vice President Kamala Harris.
“The border czar — what a joke,” Ms. Funder said Tuesday night on the stage of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.
She wasn’t the only one. Michael Morin, whose sister Rachel was killed in a horrific attack blamed on an illegal immigrant, said neither Ms. Harris nor Mr. Biden called to express condolences to the family. “They never apologized,” he said.
Rep. Tom Emmer, Minnesota Republican, said Ms. Harris fundraised for a project to help make bail for some of the rioters in Minneapolis after the death of George Floyd in 2020. One of those freed “went on to murder a man in St. Paul,” Mr. Emmer said.
The Trump campaign said the intense focus on the vice president is intentional.
“It’s reflective of the fact that nobody knows for sure who the Democratic nominee is going to be,” campaign adviser Jason Miller said.
Ms. Harris is considered the most likely candidate if Democrats persuade Mr. Biden to drop out of the race after his disastrous debate performance late last month. One source familiar with the Trump campaign said strategists have begun pivoting to deal with all the possibilities.
“All this stuff was adjusted after the debate,” the source said.
Still, the focus on a vice president at the opposing party’s nominating convention is unusual. In 2020, Democrats didn’t mention Vice President Mike Pence at all during their virtual convention, according to a search of speech transcripts.
Eight years earlier, when Mr. Biden was vice president seeking reelection with President Obama, roughly a half-dozen speakers mentioned him over the four nights, though almost always in passing.
The most sustained attention was from Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who criticized Mr. Biden’s golf game.
By contrast, through early Wednesday evening, Ms. Harris has been dinged from the stage in Milwaukee by at least 30 different speakers.
SEE ALSO: VP Harris urges Democrats not to ‘throw up our hands’ on the election
Ms. Harris has taken the most intense criticism for the border crisis, mainly because Mr. Biden handed her responsibility in 2021 for stopping the flow of Central Americans surging into the U.S.
She quickly became known as the “border czar,” though her team insists that title oversold her portfolio. Republicans said they won’t let her off the hook.
“Kamala Harris had one job, and that was to fix the border. Now imagine her in charge of the entire country,” Nikki Haley told the convention.
This week, Ms. Harris is working on convention counter-programming in the crucial election swing states of Michigan and North Carolina.
Her chief campaign job has been to focus on abortion, which has been a winning issue for Democrats in the wake of the 2022 Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade’s national policy and left the issue to states.
In Michigan on Wednesday, Ms. Harris urged Democrats not to sit out the election.
“This is not a time to throw up our hands, this is a time to roll up our sleeves,” she said.
She has said she supports Mr. Biden’s plans to stay in the race, though her allies are reportedly moving to pave the way for her nomination if the president withdraws.
Polling suggested she would escape some of Mr. Biden’s baggage but can’t shake off much of what ails his administration.
Politico reported Wednesday on research by BlueLabs Analytics, which tested the views of 15,000 voters in seven states deemed critical to the election outcome. Ms. Harris ran better than Mr. Biden but behind other Democrats who are not associated with the administration, such as Maryland Gov. Wes Moore and Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona.
Republicans are having some fun with Ms. Harris at Mr. Biden’s expense.
On Wednesday the Trump campaign rebuffed an invitation to schedule a debate between J.D. Vance, Republicans’ vice presidential pick, and Ms. Harris.
“We don’t know who the Democrat nominee for vice president is going to be, so we can’t lock in a date before their convention. To do so would be unfair to Gavin Newsom, J.B. Pritzker, Gretchen Whitmer, or whoever Kamala Harris picks as her running mate,” said Trump campaign adviser Brian Hughes.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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