Opinion: Harris is freaking Trump out by shrugging him off

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Opinion | Harris is freaking Trump out by shrugging him off
As one campaign official put it to me: “Why would we step in this man’s way?”


Vice President Kamala Harris greets supporters during a campaign rally in Savannah, Ga., on Aug. 29. (Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post)

By Karen Tumulty
August 30, 2024 at 4:15 p.m. EDT

The standout moment in Kamala Harris’s first interview as Democratic presidential nominee consisted of a mere seven words: “Same old tired playbook. Next question, please.”

That was her answer when CNN’s Dana Bash brought up Donald Trump’s recent outrageous suggestion that the vice president, who is the daughter of Indian and Jamaican parents, “happened to turn Black” as a matter of political expediency.

Let’s hope Harris continues to shrug off Trump’s racist and misogynist attacks. It’s clearly driving him crazy. … Recent days have seen Trump spiraling. In a single 24-hour period, he used his social media platform to spread a crass joke about Harris performing a sex act; suggested without evidence that she and President Joe Biden were partially responsible for the assassination attempt upon him; promoted a QAnon slogan; and sent out fake images of Harris and a host of other leading Democratic figures in orange prison uniforms.

Harris’s team has, wisely, declined to comment on his antics. As one campaign official put it to me: “Why would we step in this man’s way?”

{snip}

Opinion by Karen Tumulty
Karen Tumulty is an associate editor and columnist covering national politics. She joined The Post in 2010 from Time magazine and has also worked at the Los Angeles Times. Twitter

[Scrivener7]

1. It's working! I hope there are no more legacy press interviews, because the legacy press

seems to be having a contest about who can publish the stupidest and most inane opinion about that one interview.

She just needs to keep doing what she has been doing. Telling voters tsf is weird and creepy and if you are one of his fans, there's something seriously wrong with you.

That keeps her in the headlines and tsf out, and has the added feature of being the truth that few politicians have said outright before.

[Lonestarblue]

2. The NYT published a few letters from readers about the interview--mostly negative.

Nicholas Kristof has a piece on not demeaning Trump supporters, as if we should not criticize people who are voting to take away our rights. While I’m fed up with how the media is treating Harris—even Alexandra Petri had a not-funny attack piece on Harris and Walz in WaPo this morning—I read them and use the comments to counter what they are saying, as do lots of other readers. Yesterday, I wrote a direct question to the Times asking why they continue to question Harris on everything and Trump on nothing.

[Scrivener7]

5. I've written a half dozen similar letters to the Times over the years. Do you think they

will do anything?

What you are describing is a hamster wheel:
1.They make shit up.
2.They interview the Democratic candidate demanding reactions to the shit they made up.
3.They criticize the Democratic candidate's answer.
4.We read and absorb their criticisms so we can counter them, thereby normalizing them and giving them credence.
5.We give our answers to the criticisms of the answers about the shit they made up.
6. And on and on and on and on.

And in the end, who is talking about reducing dependence on fossil fuels, or childhood hunger in the USA or the fact that women in a score of US states are dying for lack of medical care specifically caused by republiQans? No one.

It doesn't work. It just keeps us distracted. And it keeps tsf in the headlines.

The Harris campaign making fun of them and brushing their arguments aside and calling them weird and stupid and creepy without involving the legacy press - i.e., the hamster wheel - IS working.

[Blue Owl]

3. Donny lives in a world of fakery and photoshopped valor

Kamala and Tim live in the real world

[Biophilic]

4. Obviously the MSM are less than useless.

Luckily trump and Vance are doing a bang up job of showing who they really are.

[Dulcinea]

6. "Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake."

Attributed to Napoleon Bonaparte