Vance criticizes Walz over military record
OutKick writer Mary Katharine Hamm and Democratic strategist Tim Hogan analyze J.D. Vance’s criticism of Harris’ running mate Tim Walz’s military record.
It all depends on the atmosphere.
A word that has little to do with the presidential election — a word that has to do with late-night parties and marijuana — is now the only thing that matters, at least to Kamala Harris.
She appeared on the cover of Time magazine, sketched in admiration as if she were already president, because of “the most rapid change in the atmosphere in the history of American politics.”
Despite running mate’s ultra-liberal record, most of the media jumps on the waltz wagon
Is that all it takes to win? A vice president soaring in the polls, raising loads of money, becoming a cultural phenomenon, a relatively successful Tim Walz appearance and further momentum at the Democratic National Convention would all be positives.
But will the sugar high continue after that? Will her approval ratings return to previous levels in the face of Republican attacks?
For now, at least, Donald Trump appears off balance, his attacks on Harris have not worked and he openly adores Joe Biden despite having spent years preparing to take on the frail 81-year-old president.
Moreover, Biden’s withdrawal leaves Trump, at 78, the oldest man in the race, and many of the commentators who had defended Biden’s mental acuity now argue that Trump is simply losing his mind.
A photo of former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris standing side by side. (Getty Images)
He denied it during an hour-long press conference, I thought, but he has a tendency to ramble, which reminded me of his recent Mar-a-Lago interview, where he spoke in a sharp and serious manner on at least 15 topics.
But the media, which has been anti-Trump for nine years, panned the press conference: “eccentric” by The Huffington Post and “outrageous” by Rolling Stone.
Still, how did it help him to say that the inauguration crowd was as loud or louder than King’s famous 1963 “Dream” speech?
The former president was widely mocked when he said at a press conference that he had once made an emergency helicopter landing with Willie Brown, a claim denied by former President Kamala’s ex-boyfriend, but it turned out that he had actually made the emergency landing with another black politician from California, whose name the president had got wrong.
In the battle to define Harris, Trump accuses Democrats of a coup, advertisers call her “dangerously liberal”
Trump has always run as a strongman, a fighter, a movement leader, someone who has transformed the party from its Reaganist roots. Has Harris helped shaky Republicans and independents who don’t like what Trump does find a safe haven?
Allies, including former Trump campaign aides Larry Kudlow and Kellyanne Conway, have pleaded with Trump to stay more focused. Asked about his former boss on Fox Business, Kudlow said: “Don’t deflect, don’t call her stupid, don’t say all kinds of bad things, stay on message.”
“President Trump’s winning formula is very clear,” Conway said. “It’s fewer insults, more insight and contrasting policies.”
Trump, who chatted with Elon Musk on X for two hours despite technical issues, described a Time magazine cover sketch of Harris as “like the most beautiful actress ever,” saying she bore a strong resemblance to Melania Trump, and called Kamala “a beautiful woman.” (Musk said traffic peaked at 73 million views.)
Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald J. Trump holds his first public campaign rally with his vice presidential candidate, Sen. J. D. Vance (R-Ohio) (not pictured), at Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on July 20, 2024. (Bill Priano/Getty Images)
As a result of Trump’s media onslaught, Ms Harris is finally being asked substantive questions by reporters (after a 70-second barrage of short, pithy answers), and Mr Trump is battling a media establishment that treats Ms Harris like a queen.
I don’t mean to dismiss Harris and the way she has navigated the past three weeks. I watched a few of her television interviews when Biden was still on the campaign trail, and I told people she had grown a lot from the tentative, hyper-cautious speaker she was early on.
But the mainstream media doesn’t see the problem with Harris never giving an interview, despite constantly criticizing Biden for avoiding the media. Harris downplays the issue by saying that she will hopefully do so by the end of this month. But Trump and J.D. Vance are pursuing the issue so hard that journalists are being forced to cover the controversy, describing it as “Republicans blaming Harris,” which should also be part of their job.
In typical Trump fashion, the former president said he would be less divisive after barely surviving a horrific assassination attempt, then quickly announced he was abandoning that approach. He called Harris “stupid as a stone” and questioned her racial identity in front of the National Association of Black Journalists.
Trump vs. NABJ: Hostility and Questioned Journalism
Trump also said the Harris campaign had used AI to make it look like there was a large crowd at the Detroit airport, but wide-angle footage proved there were actually thousands of people there.
And he was probably upset that internal documents alleging illegal hacking were sent to three media outlets – Politico, The Washington Post and The New York Times – only to be refused publication.
“I really hate the Fake News Media,” he posted after his chat with Musk.
But remember, Trump has a much easier path to 270 seats and a good chance of winning. Harris is attracting new supporters but losing some of Biden’s base. She must be considered underdog. She must navigate policy shifts and convince voters that the first black, female, and Asian American president is fit to be commander in chief.
U.S. Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris waves as she boards Air Force Two at San Francisco International Airport in San Francisco, California, on August 11, 2024, returning to Washington, DC. (Julia Nickinson/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)
One sign that this is no longer unthinkable is that Politico recently ran an article stating that “Progressive national security experts are already eyeing positions in Kamala Harris’ administration.”
Time’s cover story is overwhelmingly upbeat: Her excitement “reminiscent of the early days of Barack Obama’s administration… As a former prosecutor battling convicted felons, she seems uniquely right for the times.”
“Harris’ rebranding — with her happy-warrior attitude, viral memes and smug attitude toward Republican ‘wackos’ — has already done what Trump’s opponents have so far failed to do: steal the spotlight from him.”
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Let’s see where this new vibe takes her.
