Trump has never had to face someone with Kamala Harris’s raw talent
by John Kenneth White, opinion contributor - 08/07/24 9:30 AM ET
Following President Biden’s dramatic exit from the presidential race, Kamala Harris has not only seized the presidential baton but taken command of the 2024 campaign.
Beginning with her first appearance at Biden’s Wilmington, Del., headquarters, Harris went on the attack. Recapping her career, the vice president described prosecuting “predators who abused women, fraudsters who ripped off consumers, cheaters who broke the rules for their own gain.”
With a rhetorical flourish, Harris added this sharp retort: “So, hear me when I say: I know Donald Trump’s type.”
After Trump reneged on a scheduled ABC News debate in September, Harris deadpanned that while Trump had plenty to say about her, she issued another devastating response that immediately went viral: “Well, Donald, I hope you’ll reconsider meeting me on the debate stage. Because, as the saying goes, ‘If you’ve got something to say, say it to my face.’”
Before she could finish, a raucous crowd was already chanting the punchline.
With each appearance, Kamala Harris is setting the terms for what will follow over the next three months. Knowing that successful candidates focus on the voters and their futures, a staple of Harris’s stump speech is this call-and-response line: “We’re not going back.”
Harris’s political savvy did not develop overnight. In 2019, she was a tentative candidate, unsure of herself. Despite an impressive rollout, she ended her presidential campaign by year’s end, before a single vote had been cast.
But during her four years as vice president, Harris has honed her political skills. After the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, she went on the offensive with yet another devastating reply to the court’s majority, “How dare they?” In the many town halls and forums that followed, one sensed her growing self-confidence.
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https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/4813888-kamala-harris-presidential-campaign/
