Politics and elections are about appearances, and while the Democrats may have made some changes to their appearances recently by propelling Vice President Harris into the running to become the Democratic presidential nominee, the Republicans have also made some appearances recently.
It’s no secret that House Republicans are struggling to govern. They have historically struggled to pass their own legislative proposals. The House was forced to reject plans to pass the annual Financial Services and Agriculture Appropriations bill due to lack of votes. So House Republican leadership decided to put lawmakers on “August recess” a week early, meaning the House will not be in session this week. And there will be no votes on the House floor until at least September 9th.
But looking good and governing are different, which is why Republicans were able to shore up their appearances just before the summer recess.
First, getting out of Dodge a week earlier than planned gives Republicans more time to recalibrate their messaging now that Harris has become the party’s main political opponent, allows Republicans to tailor their messaging to campaign against her, and, perhaps more importantly, helps them try to align vulnerable Democrats to her.
Throwing President Biden out of the race may have been more of a problem for Congress than the White House.
Republicans hope that by tying vulnerable Democrats to “unpopular” Vice President Kamala Harris, they can undermine their reelection chances. (Getty Images)
“She’s also an obstacle. There’s a reason she’s the most unpopular vice president in American history, because the public rejects their policies,” said Rep. Richard Hudson (R-N.C.), chairman of the Republican National Committee, the official group that elects Republicans in the House of Representatives.
“She’s never resonated with young voters,” Hudson said. “She’s a terrible politician.”
Republicans believe Harris’s record gives them a chance, and because they’ve wasted time on the floor, the vice president has given them a big shot.
Hours after President Biden endorsed Harris, House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik (R-NY) drafted a resolution condemning Harris for her role as a “border czar.” The House took up Stefanik’s resolution on Thursday and deployed it as a cap to the informal start of the campaign. In the final vote before adjourning, the House voted 220-196 to condemn Harris for her border work. All Republicans voted in favor. However, six moderate Democrats from battleground districts sided with the GOP: Reps. Jared Golden (D-ME), Marie Grusenkamp Perez (D-WA), Yadira Caraveo (D-CO), Don Davis (D-CO), Henry Cuellar (D-TX), and Mary Peltola (D-AL).
Why now? Media largely silent on timing of sudden crackdown on Kamala Harris’ “border czar” label
Republicans wanted to record this vote either to provoke Democrats to denounce Harris or to go on record as supporting her. And Republicans intended to record this particular roll call vote and use it in advertising against Democrats who represent close districts in this fall’s elections.
Recognizing both Harris’ and their own weaknesses, Democrats have rushed to reframe the vice president’s role on the border, with some supporters handing Democrats talking points, pointing out that there is no such position as a “border czar” and that Harris was being asked to address the causes of the border crisis, including stemming the influx of illegal immigrants from the “Northern Triangle” countries of Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador at the southern border.
But in recent days, there has been some good news for the Republican Party.
The media’s recent efforts to correct Vice President Harris’ “border czar” comments are a perfect illustration of the visual warfare of this election campaign. (Reuters/Evelyn Hochstein)
Republicans invited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to a joint session of Congress last week. Republicans have fully supported Netanyahu and Israel in their fight against Hamas since October last year. But the Democratic Party is divided. Many Democrats, including Vice President Harris, did not attend the speech. The vice president usually co-chairs the joint session with Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana.
Netanyahu’s attendance exploited the rift among Democrats over the Middle East. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) signed Netanyahu’s invitation. But Schumer didn’t even shake his hand when lawmakers welcomed him to speak on the floor. Meanwhile, Michigan Democrat Rashida Tlaib sat silently in the chamber, holding up a round black sign. One side of the sign read “War Criminals” and the other “Guilty of Genocide.”
“This is ridiculous. There’s no room for this,” complained Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma, who challenged a witness to a fistfight during last year’s hearing. “I wanted to go in there and take the fistfight from her. No, I wasn’t going to do that, but if it had been a man, I would have.”
Netanyahu reveals reality about Iran that Kamala overlooked
Mullin also said Tlaib “should not serve in Congress.”
While Tlaib, a Palestinian-American, demonstrated peacefully inside the House chamber, noisy protesters marched around the Capitol. US Capitol Police set up a huge chain-link fence around the building, reminiscent of the barricades they set up after the 2021 riots. One protester said the barricades had turned a bastion of democracy into “Basal Netanyahu.”
Anti-Israel activists then released mealworms and maggots at the Watergate Hotel, where Netanyahu was staying.
Squad member and Michigan Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib sparked outrage among House members after she protested Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to Congress. (Getty Images)
And you thought Watergate only needed “plumbers.”
By the time Netanyahu spoke, protesters were clashing with police outside Washington’s Union Station in the shadow of the Capitol building, where they burned an American flag, replaced the Stars and Stripes on a pole outside the station with a Palestinian flag, and spray-painted “Here Comes Hamas” on a statue.
Prime Minister Netanyahu denounced the protesters as “fools who are useful to Iran.”
Jewish group leader worries Harris would be ‘much worse’ amid rising anti-Semitism
The spectacle unsettled Democrats.
“How ironic that the prime minister spoke about burning the American flag and then literally burning the American flag with the Capitol building in the background is proving him right,” said Rep. Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla.
Republicans got exactly the image they wanted: Democrats divided over the Middle East, but clashes with police and flag burnings only amplified that image.
Florida Democratic Rep. Jared Moskowitz noted that anti-Israel demonstrators burning the flag in protest of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to Congress were “proving him right” in real time. (Tierney L. Cross/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Things calmed down in the evening, when Republicans staged more political stunts.
Rep. Brandon Williams (R-New York) was passing through Union Station on his way to a late-night vote in the House of Representatives when he came up with the idea to replace the Palestinian flag with the American flag.
“This place has been desecrated. A flag has been burned here. If we don’t actually do something, we’re going to have problems in this country,” Johnson said.
Check it out: The most dramatic photos from Wednesday’s pro-Hamas demonstration in Washington DC
Williams, Johnson and several other Republicans went to the train station and removed the Palestinian flag, after which they replaced it with the American flag.
“We know that they put the Palestinian flag on these poles today. It’s outrageous,” Johnson said. “They’re destroying public property and burning the American flag. We will not tolerate that.”
It’s hard to imagine the Republicans writing the script any better: Left-wing anti-Israel protesters burn the American flag. Republican lawmakers fly the American flag?
It seems like a Republican PR wet dream that left-wing anti-Israel protesters would burn the American flag, only for Republican lawmakers to hoist it again in the evening. (Nathan Howard/Reuters)
What did I say earlier about optics?
Washington law enforcement has made only 23 arrests in connection with the protests, including six people arrested inside the Capitol for breaching decorum while Netanyahu was speaking.
Authorities then dropped charges against 11 protesters. Republicans were reluctant to hear that. But the scene was consistent with their argument that Washington DC was “lawless” and that “prosecutors were weak.” House Republicans immediately demanded a report on what happened on the streets of DC. The decision not to prosecute also fit the Republican strategy.
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Republicans didn’t need to come to the August recess with a bill to brag about, since they appeared to have won the war of appearances.
