Why Harris went from ‘happy’ to calling Trump a ‘fascist’

On Wednesday afternoon, Kamala Harris stood in front of the vice president’s mansion in Washington DC, and launched a brief but withering attack on her Republican presidential opponent.

Calling Donald Trump “increasingly careless and unstable”, he quoted the critical words of John Kelly, former White House Chief of Staff, in an interview with the New York Times.

The vice president quoted Kelly as describing Trump as someone who “definitely falls into the general definition of fascists” and who has spoken in favor of Hitler on several occasions.

He said his opponent wanted “unfettered power” and later, at a CNN town hall event, was bluntly asked if he believed he was a “fascist”. “Yes, I hear you,” he replied.

Trump’s campaign quickly accused the Democratic candidate of selling lies. Harris has been desperate, said spokesman Steven Cheung, because “he is being ignored, and his campaign is at a critical juncture”.

In a domestic political campaign — especially one as tight and hard-fought as the 2024 presidential race — there is a natural tendency for candidates to turn out to be negative. Attacks are often very successful in encouraging supporters to go to the polls and disrupting opposition campaigns.

For Harris, however, the heavy hand toward Trump is different from the “happy” message of the early days of his campaign.

While warning at a Democratic caucus of an off-guard Trump presidency, Harris backed away from President Joe Biden’s core message that Trump threatens American democracy.

According to political strategist Matt Bennett of the Democratic Alliance, however, it is clear why Harris was so quick to amplify Kelly’s dark image of Trump as a man with a penchant for approval.

“Everything he does now is a trick,” he said. “The priority was to make sure as many voters as possible knew what Kelly was saying.”

The vice president’s latest comments come after weeks of strategy by his campaign to woo independent voters and moderate Republicans who might be open to supporting the Democratic ticket. Polls suggest the race is very tight, with no candidate leading in any of the battleground states.

The area around major cities in key battleground states — Philadelphia, Detroit, Milwaukee and Phoenix, for example — is filled with college-educated professionals who have traditionally voted Republican but in polls that show skepticism about returning Trump to the White House.

“His case for how to win this thing is to build as broad a coalition as possible and bring in disaffected Republicans – people who don’t feel they can vote for Trump again,” Mr Bennett said.

Devynn DeVelasco, a 20-year-old independent from Nebraska, is one of those who were once convinced by a long list of Republicans who worked for former President Trump but now say he is unfit for office.

While he hopes other Republicans will join him in supporting Harris, he worries there is fatigue surrounding the allegations against the former president.

“When these reports [about Kelly’s comments] I came out and I wasn’t shocked, it hasn’t changed that much,” Ms. DeVelasco told the BBC.

Republican strategist Denise Grace Gitsham said voters have been hearing the same rhetoric about Trump since 2016, so any new allegations are unlikely to move the dial.

“If you’re voting for Donald Trump because you don’t like his personality, you’re already a serious voter,” he told the BBC. “But if you’re someone who looks at policies and that’s more important to you than vibe or personality, you’re going to go with someone who you feel did the best under him while he was in the White House.”

Both Harris and Trump have been sharpening their barbs in recent days. As states marched through Midwest battlegrounds Monday, Harris repeatedly warned of the consequences of a Trump presidency — on abortion rights, health care, the economy and America’s foreign policy.

On Friday, he will hold a rally in Texas – a state he said represents the future of the anti-abortion movement once Trump is back in power. Next Tuesday, he will focus on Washington DC, with a meeting reportedly organized by the National Mall, where Trump spoke before some of his supporters attacked the US Capitol.

Trump, meanwhile, continued his drumbeat of attacking his Democratic counterpart. At a town hall forum in North Carolina, he said Harris was “lazy” and “stupid” and was nominated by his party because of his race and gender.

He also issued his own warning, saying “we may not have a country” if Harris wins.

None of these lines are Trump’s particular trip, however, as he has spent much of his campaign attacking Democrats and sticking to his core message on immigration, trade and the economy.

A shutdown of Harris, on the other hand, aimed at winning over anti-Trump Republicans and independents, is not without risk, said Democratic strategist Bennett.

“You always lack one thing to try to help highlight another,” he said. “The candidate’s time and time spent on marketing are the two most valuable things. And how you use those stories.”

Trump has been a divisive figure in American politics for over eight years now. Most Americans hold strongly, and deeply entrenched, opinions about this man right now.

If anti-Trump sentiment puts Harris over the top on election day, his latest strategic emphasis will have paid off. If not, second guessing will come fast and furious.

Additional reporting by Ana Faguy

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