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As the future of Joe Biden’s candidacy remains uncertain, Republicans have their sights set on another target - Vice President Kamala Harris.
Members of the president’s own party — donors, lawmakers and politically active celebrities — have joined in a chorus of calls for Biden to step aside. While the president himself has remained defiant, telling Michigan supporters on Friday: “I am running, and we’re going to win.”
Trump’s campaign reportedly does not want to face a candidate other than Biden. Still, Republicans seem to be preparing for Harris to rise to the top of the ticket. Post-debate, she has become the bullseye for Republicans’ sexist, racist attacks.
In 2020, Harris made history multiple times over. When sworn in, she became the first woman, the first Black American, and the first South Asian American to be elected vice president of the US.
Republicans homed in on these facts in recent days — completely ignoring her years-long experience on the political scene. That includes a few Republicans have suggested that she was a DEI hire, which stands for diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Democrats have “got to choose between a mentally incompetent president and a DEI vice president,” Texas Republican Rep Chip Roy recently told Fox Business.
Shockingly, he wasn’t the only one to make the offensive remark. Former Trump aide Sebastian Gorka managed to relay the same sentiment in a more offensive way, saying on Newsmax this week: “She’s a DEI hire, right? She’s a woman. She’s colored, therefore she’s got to be good.”
The New York Post also added to the racist chatter, with a columnist writing a July 6 story headlined: “America may soon be subjected to the country’s first DEI president: Kamala Harris.”
Some have attacked the intelligence of the former prosecutor and California attorney general.
Texas Rep Ronny Jackson, who also served as Trump’s White House physician, blasted Harris: “She has got to be the lowest IQ vice president that this country has ever had.”
Failed GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy also claimed Harris had a “low IQ.”
Despite serving as vice president for more than three years, others have attacked her competence and qualifications.
Earlier this week, Trump himself derided Harris: “If Joe had picked someone even halfway competent, they would have bounced him from office years ago. But they can’t, because she’s got to be their second choice.”
Fox News host Jeanine Pirro claimed the vice president “can’t put a sentence together,” before suggesting that she is often under the influence: “I think she likes to have a good time.”
Some strategists have said they aren’t surprised by Republicans’ recent flood of attacks against Harris — or how they are framing them.
“Republicans are attacking Harris with these tired racist tropes because they truly have no idea how to take on a woman who is smarter and tougher than their wannabe strongman Trump,” Jess McIntosh, a Democratic strategist and former communications adviser to Hillary Clinton, told the Wall Street Journal.
“It’s things like attacking her intelligence, attacking the tone of her voice, her laugh, the othering language,” Karen Finney, Democratic strategist and former Clinton 2016 spokesperson, told The Guardian. “Those are pretty common tropes that we see used against women.”
Speaking on “Pod Save America” on Wednesday, former Biden White House press secretary Jen Psaki chalked up Harris’ lack of popularity to the fact that “we live in a country that is sexist and racist.”
In the face of discriminatory comments, Harris has been climbing the polls, indicating she has a better chance than Biden of defeating Trump in a hypothetical matchup.
One poll, conducted by the Democratic firm Bendixen & Amandi, showed Biden slightly behind Trump, 42 to 43 percent, while Harris surpassed Trump, 42 to 41 percent.
In a ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll, respondents also preferred Harris to Biden in a hypothetical head-to-head against Trump.
Forty-nine percent of respondents said they would support Harris compared to 46 percent who would support Trump. But if Biden and Trump faced off, the president only garnered support from 46 percent of respondents, while Trump inched ahead with support from 47 percent of respondents.
Harris is scheduled to speak at a rally on Saturday in Pennsylvania, just one day after Biden once again vowed to remain in the race.
