Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris waves as she boards Air Force Two departing Pittsburgh International Airport in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on September 2, 2024. | Source: ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / Getty
Republican-led attacks on Vice President Kamala Harris that once waded into the waters of the ridiculous have fully dived into the ocean of desperation. Much to their likely chagrin, though, none have managed to make a big splash.
Because those aforementioned attacks have rung hollow, Republicans have apparently begun shifting their strategy to be one that hinges more on fake outrage than it does substantive policy.
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As such, the latest attacks on Harris have been of the fast food — McDonald’s — and linguistics — “Ebonics” — varieties in separate yet equally disingenuous criticisms that each scream of desperation.
Case and point: On Friday, Donald Trump – having expressed fear of debating the vice president – claimed without any proof that an “exhaustive study” found Harris lied about working at McDonald’s as an undergrad at Howard University in Washington, D.C. Exhibiting his stunning lack of deductive reasoning, Trump connected dots that never existed in order to jump to the conclusion that “she never worked there.”
Trump on Sunday doubled down on that unverified (and irrelevant) claim) posting on his Truth Social platform that “She never did.”
In fact, Harris’ short-lived college summer job that she has spoken of occasionally on the campaign trial was seemingly – and ironically — the primary focus of Trump’s messaging on Labor Day, the federal holiday that commemorates the nation’s workers.
Trump’s rhetoric on Harris working at McDonalds backfired last month when Democratic vice presidential candidate and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz expertly juxtaposed the Republican nominee’s life of privilege with one in which college students need to work to earn extra money.
“Can you simply picture Donald Trump working at a McDonald’s? Trying to make a McFlurry or something?” Walz asked during a speech at the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees convention in Los Angeles. “He knows this. He knows this. He couldn’t run that damn McFlurry machine if it cost him anything.”
After that McDonald’s attack failed spectacularly, Trump’s supporters decided to mount what appeared to be a coordinated social media campaign disingenuously accusing Harris of code-switching and speaking in “Ebonics” during a speech at a rally in Detroit on Sunday.
However, the substance of Harris’ speech – particularly the moment being focused on in which she called for labor unions to be recognized for securing workers’ rights – was never addressed by those same dog-whistling critics who apparently are more concerned with vocal inflection than celebrating the workplace.
These low-hanging fruit attacks on Harris have become more prominent in the weeks since President Joe Biden dropped out of the race, including Trump’s comments at the National Association of Black Journalists convention questioning Harris’ racial heritage.
Such deflections from the real issues that voters have said they care about the most (spoiler alert: they aren’t college work history or the dialect in which one speaks) are classic Trump moves designed to distract via smoke-and-mirror tactics.
They also scream of desperation from a campaign and supporters who have seen in real-time how Harris has turned around polling and support to favor herself and Democrats, who are looking to control both chambers of Congress in 2025.
With the first presidential debate between Harris and Trump scheduled for next week, Republicans have increasingly resorted to such measures to try to discredit a historic candidacy that more polls say would emerge victorious if the election was held today.
This is America.
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