Harris’s Best Campaign Surrogate Is Donald Trump

Nothing seemingly will ever cause MAGA cultists to turn away from their foul, morally bankrupt cult leader, but for those who have not cast morality aside and are not driven by their racism and/or promises for a white "Christian" nationalist future Trump's behavior towards Kamala Harris and his endless flow of insults and racist remarks are perhaps the strongest argument for Harris.  Combine that with Trump's meandering and almost incoherent press conferences and Trump may unwittingly be Harris' best surrogate. Trump keeps reminding everyone of the chaos and meanness of his regime and his inability to focus on policy issues of any nature save promises to further cut taxes for the very wealthy and large corporations.  Many - I suspect a majority - of Americans are simply exhausted by and want an end to the Trump show which after nine years has grown very old. Many Republicans want Trump to reset his campaign but he seems unable to do so and cannot discipline himself to stop his worst impulses.  Some Republicans fear he is harming the chances of down ticket candidates.  Add in the abortion referendums in Florida and Arizona which are gifts to Harris and seemingly supported by a majority of voters.  A piece in the New Yorker looks at how Harris is benefitting.  Here are highlights:  

On Thursday, in a crowded auditorium at Prince George’s Community College, in Maryland, President Joe Biden appeared in public with Vice-President Kamala Harris for the first time since his decision, three weeks ago, to pull the plug on his reelection campaign and endorse her instead. There were smiles all around, a hug, loud cheers. Harris, speaking first, called Biden an “extraordinary human being.” She beamed. Biden put his hand over his heart. The crowd chanted “Thank you, Joe! Thank you, Joe!” The vibe was warm and not too awkward, considering the circumstances.

This can’t be an easy moment for Biden. He and Harris played to the crowd like the pros that they are, but there was little doubt, watching the President, that he’s more comfortable in valedictory mode than playing the role of her patron; it must surely sting such a proud man to see the jubilant crowds that have greeted Harris at every stop since his exit from the race.

Biden’s own legacy is on the line if Donald Trump is returned to the White House. Aside from Harris herself, nobody has more riding on her election than Biden. But the two appearances showed, with painful clarity, that he has not yet made the transition—if he ever will—to being a successful advocate for her ascension.

It may not matter. If Biden is not yet Harris’s cheerleader-in-chief, these last few wild weeks have established that there is no better surrogate for her campaign than Trump himself. Practically every time Trump has opened his mouth since Biden stepped aside, the ex-President has made the case for his own manifest unfitness for office; what better assistance could she ask for?

Consider just the past few days. On Sunday, Trump actually claimed in a social-media post that Harris’s campaign had faked a crowd of fifteen thousand people who had showed up for a recent rally at a Detroit airport hangar. “Nobody was there,” he insisted. . . . . The fact checkers dutifully weighed in with witness accounts and video proof that Trump was out of his mind. Sometimes you have to wonder whether there is a secret agent for the Democrats covertly advising Trump when he posts this stuff. On Monday night, in a two-hour conversation on X with its owner, Elon Musk, Trump went off on so many tangents that it was almost a relief when he mentioned his apparent plan for self-exile to Venezuela if he lost to Harris . . .

By Wednesday, in a speech in North Carolina, Trump—once again—made a mockery of Republican leaders who have been publicly pleading with him to abandon personal attacks on the Vice-President in favor of a more substantive policy-focused case for himself. (As if.). . . . As for substance, Trump offered not policy proposals so much as magic potions and miracle cures—a Day One Presidential executive order to his Cabinet to immediately bring prices down, new tariffs, overnight elimination of government regulations. In the reality-based world, new reports that same day showed inflation falling and crime statistics plummeting in most major U.S. cities.

In a press conference on Thursday afternoon, Trump mocked Harris as a “communist” who is going to ruin the entire world if she is elected. “Beyond the number of one hundred per cent” of new jobs in the Biden years has gone to migrants, he said. He talked about the horrors of wind power and the evils of electric trucks. He talked and he talked and he talked.

“I think I’m entitled to personal attacks,” Trump said, when he finally did take a reporter’s query about his flailing campaign strategy. Well, O.K., then.

When Trump began attacking Harris in earnest, a couple of weeks ago, she condemned his remarks about her racial background as “the same old show.” I say, Let the show play on for at least a few more months. Every time Trump talks, he’s making the case for her.