The Trump campaign and Republicans wasted no time going on the attack against Vice President Harris on Sunday after President Biden backed her as the party’s next nominee upon ending his own 2024 bid.
Republicans used their convention this week to signal how they would go after Harris should she replace Biden atop the ticket, and on Sunday the party followed through, bashing Harris for her handling of the root causes of migration, tying her to the Biden administration’s handling of inflation and accusing her of masking Biden’s physical and mental fitness for office.
“Kamala Harris owns the entire left-wing policy record of Joe Biden,” Donald Trump Jr. posted on Truth Social. “The only difference is that she is even more liberal and less competent than Joe, which is really saying something. She was put in charge of the border and we saw the worst invasion of illegals in our history!!!”
"Kamala Harris is just as much of a joke as Biden is. Harris will be even WORSE for the people of our Nation than Joe Biden," Trump campaign senior advisers Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles wrote in a memo. "Harris has been the Enabler in Chief for Crooked Joe this entire time. They own each other’s records, and there is no distance between the two. Harris must defend the failed Biden Administration AND her liberal, weak-on-crime record in [California]."
Make America Great Again Inc., the main super PAC supporting former President Trump’s 2024 campaign, quickly launched ads that would air in Pennsylvania, Georgia and Arizona attacking Harris.
"Kamala was in on it. She covered up Joe's obvious mental decline. Kamala knew Joe couldn't do the job, so she did it," the narrator reads, with footage of Harris praising Biden interspersed.
"Look what she got done: a border invasion, runaway inflation, the American Dream dead. They created this mess. They, no, Kamala, owns this failed record," the ad continues.
The Trump campaign’s rapid response team quickly resurfaced old footage of Harris from the 2020 Democratic primary. One clip featured her offering support for a ban on plastic straws. Another highlighted her support for a Medicare for All bill.
LaCivita responded to a Harris social media post in which she wrote she sees Biden “when the cameras are on and when the cameras are off—in the Oval Office, in the Situation Room, and on the campaign trail.”
“Yes you did … and you lied about it every day,” LaCivita responded on the social platform X.
Trump himself did not immediately weigh in on Harris, only saying “whoever the Left puts up now” would be an echo of Biden.
Republicans throughout their convention last week indicated they would rather face Biden in November, viewing him as a weakened candidate amid attacks from his own party. But several speakers invoked Harris’s name, tying her to surges in migrants at the southern border and persistently high prices.
Biden on Sunday endorsed Harris to become the Democratic Party's nominee as he announced he would not seek reelection.
"My fellow Democrats, I have decided not to accept the nomination and to focus all my energies on my duties as President for the remainder of my term," he posted on X. "My very first decision as the party nominee in 2020 was to pick Kamala Harris as my Vice President. And it’s been the best decision I’ve made."
"Today I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year. Democrats — it’s time to come together and beat Trump. Let’s do this," he added.
Harris has several clear advantages over other Democrats: She was on the ticket that won in 2020 and the one that received millions of votes in primaries this year; she has been campaigning for months in swing states; she has been the face of the campaign’s push around abortion access; and she is the only other candidate who could access the financial war chest the Biden-Harris campaign has amassed.
Several lawmakers had publicly said they would support Harris as the nominee if Biden were to step aside. And there would likely be political backlash if the party skipped over the first woman and first woman of color elected vice president in favor of another candidate.
There has been a smattering of polls available showing whether Harris would fare better than Biden in a head-to-head match-up against Trump, but with mixed results.
An NBC News survey published Sunday found Trump ahead of Biden by 2 percentage points, 45 percent support to 43 percent, and ahead of Harris by 2 points, 47-45 percent. A New York Times/Siena College poll found Harris running slightly better than Biden in Pennsylvania and Virginia, both states Democrats need to win.
Harris is not without her flaws. Her 2020 presidential campaign flopped after significant hype, beset by internal problems and an inability to develop a winning message. Harris dropped out before the Iowa caucuses in 2020.
Numerous Democrats threw their support behind Harris on Sunday after Biden’s announcement, with a few notable exceptions. Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) did not immediately endorse her in their statements about Biden’s decision.
