One of the attacks Republicans have deployed against Kamala Harris is making fun of her laugh, a similar tactic used against Hillary Clinton, who was described in 2016 as "cackling," a sound a witch would make.
Republican Party social media accounts posted a video of Harris chuckling with the caption, "Kamala Harris brought her cackle to Milwaukee: 'Good afternoon, Wisconsin! Ha ha ha ha!'"
The comment earned jeers in the comment section.
"You are frightened by the emotion of joy?" asked someone in the comments.
The Washington Post reported Sunday, citing a senior Republican involved in the Trump campaign, that there will be "attacks on her laugh and her tendency to say awkward things."
Read also: Trump vs. Harris will seem compressed. But it’s the norm elsewhere.
“We are going to cut up so many clips,” the person promised.
MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace played a clip of Harris speaking to Drew Barrymore's show about her laughter being the same as her late mother's.
Barrymore put her hand to her heart, sighing, "Aww."
Harris says in the clip that she remembers growing up with women sitting around tables drinking coffee and laughing and doesn't want to stigmatize children, especially, away from expressing their laughter.
Memes have spread online saying, "Make America Laugh Again," a play on Trump's long-time MAGA slogan. Etsy has exploded with merchandise from hats to t-shirts featuring the slogan.
Writer and longtime political analyst John Heileman pointed to the attacks on a "cackling Clinton" as well as the obvious sexism.
"Anybody heard Donald Trump laugh? Laughter in life is — this is an odd political point — but laughter is infectious," said Heileman. "When you see someone laugh, if they break character on SNL, you catch the bug. You start to laugh along with them. It's one of the important signs of humanity. And I think anybody who you've never seen laugh is probably a sociopath."
"So, having said that, I just want to come back to pull these two threads together and talk about efficacy to talk about why this DEI argument is a bad argument from the political standpoint," he pivoted to talk about Republicans claiming Harris only got where she is because she was a Black woman.
He explained that about 7 percent of Americans will determine the election, many of whom are people of color and young people whose enthusiasm Democrats will count on.
"But this argument that they are making, which is why her framing of future versus past, this argument is an old argument. It sounds old to young people. And it reminds people of color, whether they are brown skin or black skin or whatever, that of all things that Maya is saying, what's embedded in that is this notion that they want to take you back. And the argument sounds archaic. It doesn't sound like 2024 in America," he said.
He said attacking her this way is "reminding people how out of step they are with modern America."
See the video below or at the link here.
'Anyone ever see Trump laugh': Analyst says those who don't laugh 'probably sociopaths' www.youtube.com
