How the GOP will shift its attack messaging from Biden to Harris in Pa. and other states

The first official Republican salvo against the presidential candidacy of Vice President Kamala Harris — an attack ad on X — was launched Sunday in Pennsylvania just one hour and two minutes after President Joe Biden’s stunning announcement that ended his run for reelection.

The ad, created by MAGA Inc., a super PAC that supports former President Donald Trump, accuses Harris of “covering up” President Joe Biden’s “mental decline.”

It asserts: “Kamala knew Joe couldn’t do the job. So she did it. And look what she got done: a border invasion, runaway inflation, the American dream dead.”

Tying Harris to the perceived misfires of Biden’s administration is the primary GOP message now in play in the key swing state of Pennsylvania, as many of Trump’s backers were surprised to see the elderly opponent they were accustomed to battling tap out in favor of a younger substitute.

“It’s a simple pivot from Biden to Harris,” Alex Pfeiffer, MAGA Inc.’s communications director, said in an interview Monday. “Highlighting how Harris is culpable for Biden’s failures on the border and elsewhere is a very easy transition.”

Beyond the border, GOP operatives and officials are eager to tag Harris with numerous supposed weaknesses, big and small. Among their claims: She’s against fracking; her laugh is a problem; she’s unqualified; the proposed switchover is bad for democracy; she’s soft on crime; and she likes Venn diagrams but is opposed to plastic straws.

From Trump himself, however, the message is simpler: “There are two words to describe Kamala Harris: vicious and dumb,” he told the New York Post on Monday. “It’s a bad combination.”

Harris, who was a prosecutor before her rise to national office, is poised to hit back on these attacks in a race against Trump, the first former president convicted of a felony.

During a speech in Wilmington on Monday, she said she had prosecuted fraudsters, cheaters, and abusers. “I know Donald Trump’s type,” she quipped.

Echoing national GOP talking points, Pennsylvania officials and candidates have been quick to denigrate Harris and her rapid ascent.

“Sixteen million voters across the country are now being told that their votes for President Biden no longer count,” said Republican Stacy Garrity, treasurer of the commonwealth, in a statement Monday.

Her words dovetailed with the comments made by GOP vice presidential nominee JD Vance, who called Harris a “threat to democracy” on Monday because, he said, she will likely be the Democratic presidential nominee without voter input.

Vance’s phrasing is meant to mirror Democratic criticism of Trump, who refused to accept his 2020 electoral defeat and faces pending legal cases related to his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

In assessing the GOP messaging plan, Democratic strategist J.J. Balaban said in an interview Tuesday that he was confused.

“How can Republicans think Harris has both been secretly running the country, yet is unqualified to be president?” asked Balaban, an ad maker based in Philadelphia. “That shows a fair amount of dexterity.”

Balaban also criticized what he saw as hypocrisy in the Republican charge that it’s “undemocratic” for Biden to step aside for Harris.

“The idea that the party of Jan. 6 and of the candidate who wouldn’t accept the result of the 2020 election is making claims about the sanctity of democracy is an impressive feat,” he said

Garrity also contended that Harris’ policies are “well outside the mainstream … and out of step with Pennsylvanians in all 67 counties.” She cited as examples Harris’ cosponsoring of the Senate version of the Green New Deal, as well as her support for a fracking ban and “Bernie Sanders’s healthcare plan that would eliminate employer-provided health care coverage for millions of people.”

Harris had supported Medicare for all as a presidential candidate in the 2020 primary.

“Let’s not lose sight that we have a Medicare system that’s already working,” she wrote in 2019 when she was competing with Biden and Sanders (Ind., Vt.) for the nomination. “Now, let’s expand it to all Americans and give everyone access to comprehensive health care.”

U.S. Rep. Dan Meuser, a Republican who represents east-central Pennsylvania, reiterated GOP messaging about Harris in an interview Tuesday, saying that “from national security, to the border, to the economy, she owns it all.”

Meuser added that Harris was “more interested in posting bail for some of those folks burning and looting and smashing windows on Chestnut Street in Philadelphia than she was from stopping them from doing it. I think Philadelphians have got to remember that.”

Meuser was apparently referring to a statement Harris made on Twitter in June 2020 in the wake of the killing of George Floyd, in which she said, “If you’re able to, chip in now to the @MNFreedomFund to help post bail for those protesting on the ground in Minnesota.”

A year later, Rep. Tom Emmer (R., Minn.) said that by urging people to contribute to the bail fund, Harris and others “freed” a man from jail who “went on to murder a man.” FactCheck.org disputed that assertion, saying the statement is misleading and a distortion of the facts.

Trump’s line of attack against Harris has already been adopted by Pennsylvania Republican Senate candidate Dave McCormick, who is running to unseat Democratic Sen. Bob Casey.

Elizabeth Gregory, McCormick’s communications director, linked Harris to the senator in a statement Monday. McCormick’s campaign had largely focused on the senator’s connections to Biden before his withdrawal.

“Career politician Bob Casey votes for Joe Biden and ‘Border Czar’ Kamala Harris’s failing liberal agenda 98% of the time. Casey and Harris have been a disaster for Pennsylvania, forcing their shared agenda of open borders, raising the cost of living for middle class families, enabling violent crime, and banning fracking on the American people.”

While Biden never appointed Harris nor anyone else to serve as “border czar,” he did task Harris in 2021 to lead diplomatic efforts in addressing root causes of migration from Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador, amid a spike in migration from these countries.

Asked to analyze the issues being raised by Republicans about Harris, Stephen Medvic, director of the Center for Politics and Public Affairs at Franklin and Marshall College, said it seems the GOP is “flailing around right now.”

He said that “linking Harris to Biden is their best bet,” but he also cautioned that “Americans know that vice president is a supporting role, and they may not agree with the president’s agenda.”

Also, he said, personal attacks and “veiled racist insults” would likely backfire, whether they are from Trump or from Rep. Tim Burchett (R., Tenn.), who said Monday that Biden had been dumped in favor of “our DEI vice president.”