Haisten Willis of the Washington Examiner focuses on former President Donald Trump’s approach to his new Democratic opponent.
Vice President Kamala Harris is making an appeal to her progressive base with a series of campaign moves that are equally tantalizing to her GOP rival, former President Donald Trump.
Trump has sought to define Harris as a “California radical” by pointing to her embrace of far-left policies during her 2020 run for president. She has, to some extent, attempted to insulate herself from that line of attack since taking over the Democratic ticket, disavowing her previous support for a ban on fracking and single-payer healtcare. But Harris has simultaneously given Trump fodder that he is crystalizing with a new nickname: “Comrade Kamala.”
Harris announced an anti-price-gouging initiative last week that critics described as a price control scheme. Before that, she picked the progressive Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) as her running mate.
“Comrade Kamala Harris is terrible for our Country. She is a Communist, has always been a Communist, and will always be a Communist,” Trump posted on Truth Social Sunday afternoon. “Under her ‘leadership,’ the USA will fail, and fail quickly. We will not let that happen!”
Trump followed that up Monday morning with a post describing Harris as a “Marxist trained and believing President whose father is a Marxist professor.”
Harris’s choice to pivot to the middle on some issues and to the left on others reflects her attempts to appeal to swing voters while maintaining the support of the Democratic base.
She had two other Democrats on her running mate short list, but each was more centrist and risked turning off progressives who were skeptical of President Joe Biden before he stepped aside.
Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) faced criticism over his union record, while Gov. Josh Shapiro (D-PA), a Jewish supporter of Israel, was panned as “Genocide Josh” by pro-Palestinian activists.
With the price-gouging plan, Harris has gone further than most Democrats.
