Although Vice President Kamala Harris continues to describe herself as the "underdog" in the 2024 presidential race, many national and battleground state polls are showing her with small single-digit leads over GOP nominee Donald Trump.
Harris' leads aren't as large as former Bill Clinton adviser James Carville would like. The veteran Democratic strategist has said that because polls tend to underestimate Trump, he would much rather see her Harris by 8 percent, 9 percent or more.
However, Carville has also said that key swing states in both the Rust Belt and the Sun Belt are very much in play for the vice president.
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In an opinion column published by The Guardian on September 4, Sidney Blumenthal — a former senior adviser to both Bill and Hillary Clinton — lays out some reasons why the possibility of Harris winning in November is a "most terrifying prospect" to Trump.
"Harris is an exponentially greater threat to Trump than E Jean Carroll," Blumental argues. "The Carroll defamation judgment didn’t strip him of his manhood, but could be interpreted as an affirmation: the adjudicated rapist as alpha dog. Losing to Harris would be the extinction of his virility. She compounds his existential crisis. If he loses, he will not be able to use presidential powers to be a criminal on the loose. The federal cases against him will proceed, even if the U.S. Supreme Court has eviscerated the Constitution in granting him 'absolute' official immunity for attempting to overthrow the government."
Blumenthal adds, "A defeated Trump will face years of trials, undoubtedly receive guilty verdicts and likely jail time. He will be a depleted convict. His fear of his fate accelerates his impulses to lie, smear and violate all norms to an uncontrollably frantic level."
The former Clintons adviser believes that Trump feels even more threatened by Harris than he did by 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton eight years ago.
"Time and again," Blumental explains, "Trump repeats that Harris is 'not smart' and 'not very smart,' which only reveals his insecurity about facing her in a debate he has variously refused and accepted. His campaign's insistence that his microphone be shut off only underscores his advisers' dread of his unmonitored mouth."
Blumental continues, "After her CNN interview, he accused her both of being 'boring'; that is, he couldn't figure out a point of criticism — and of 'rambling incoherence,' his obvious projection."
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Sidney Blumenthal's full column for the Guardian is available at this link.
