Former President Donald Trump and his fellow Republicans are rotating their political cannon away from “Crooked Joe Biden” and toward “Lying Kamala Harris” after the historic shake-up of the Democratic presidential ticket.
Mr. Trump and his allies are adjusting to the new reality that he is now the oldest candidate ever to run for the White House and on a crash course with a 59-year-old former prosecutor who would be the first woman and the first woman of color to be elected as U.S. president.
Mr. Trump and his allies plan to burden her with the Biden-Harris administration’s record, cast Ms. Harris as an even more extreme version of the “worst president in history” and deliver a heavy dose of immigration-related criticism.
“Kamala Harris was appointed ‘border czar’ in March of 2021, and since that time, millions and millions of illegal aliens have invaded our country, and countless Americans have been killed by migrant crime because of her willful demolition of American borders and laws,” Mr. Trump said in a “Failed Border Czar Kamala Harris” press call. Paul Perez and Brandon Judd, the current and former presidents of the National Border Patrol Council, joined the Republican nominee.
Mr. Trump said Ms. Harris backs “open border” policies that have hurt communities across the nation.
He offered a reminder that Ms. Harris compared “patriotic” Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to the Ku Klux Klan. In a 2018 congressional hearing, then-Sen. Harris informed ICE’s acting director that “many” people perceive ICE officers as similar to KKK thugs in using violence and intimidation.
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“VP Harris knows the solutions, but she refused to implement them, leaving me to conclude she is either politically hungry for the base support or she is dangerously incompetent,” Mr. Judd said. “I concluded it is both.”
Ms. Harris has taken center stage since Mr. Biden’s announcement Sunday that he is leaving the race after failing to assure Democrats he is mentally fit to lead the party and the nation.
She has moved quickly to lock up enough delegates to win the party’s nomination. According to her campaign, she has raised more than $100 million.
Ms. Harris is playing up her experience as attorney general of California and district attorney of San Francisco to frame the race as a contest between a prosecutor and a convicted felon.
“In those roles, I took on perpetrators of all crimes, predators who abused women, fraudsters who ripped off consumers, cheaters who broke the rules for their own gain,” Ms. Harris said at a campaign event Tuesday. “So hear me when I say I know Donald Trump’s type.”
She criticized Mr. Trump’s role in overturning Roe v. Wade and opening the door to tougher abortion restrictions at the state level.
“We are not going back,” Ms. Harris said.
Mr. Trump is expected to respond Wednesday at a campaign rally in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Trump campaign officials predict that Ms. Harris will have a rude awakening once the initial excitement wanes.
“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,” Trump pollster Tony Fabrizio wrote in a memo. “Before long, Harris’ ‘honeymoon’ will end and voters will refocus on her role as Biden’s partner and co-pilot.”
The National Republican Campaign Committee, the House Republicans’ campaign arm, sent a memo urging lawmakers to “present Kamala Harris as an extreme San Francisco progressive who is out of step with the American people,” Punchbowl News reported.
Some Republican lawmakers faced blowback for referring to Ms. Harris, whose father is Jamaican and mother is Indian, as a “DEI hire.”
Mr. Trump, meanwhile, said Ms. Harris has a history of making a mess out of everything she touches, including her disappointing 2020 presidential campaign and her time as a prosecutor.
“She is the same as Biden, but much more radical,” he said. “Really, what you should do is take a look at San Francisco now compared to before she became the district attorney, and you will see what she will do to our country.
“I think she should be easier than Biden because he is slightly more mainstream, but not much,” he said.
• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.
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