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As Democratic icons turn on Harris, GOP elders keep distance from Trump

Monicel
As Democratic icons turn on Harris, GOP elders keep distance from Trump

Cleve R. Wootson Jr.
| Washington Post

Several people who occupied the White House are now energetically criss-crossing the country on behalf of Vice President Kamala Harris: Bill Clinton was recently in North Carolina, Barack Obama will head to Georgia on Thursday and his wife, Michelle, will be in Michigan on Saturday . for the start of early voting.

Even former President Jimmy Carter, who is receiving hospice care at age 100, marked a vote for Harris during early voting in Georgia this month.

On the other side of the race, the only former president campaigning for Donald Trump is Donald Trump himself. Many of the people who have led the Republican Party in recent decades have largely distanced themselves from Trump, a rift he has not publicly lamented and appears to openly embrace.

Former party leaders have long played a role in paving a candidate’s path to the White House, often helping to build excitement in the intense closing weeks of the race. Harris’ campaign, which reflects a relatively traditional approach, is embracing that playbook, using Democratic icons to generate buzz.

Trump, on the other hand, has a long history of insults and confrontations with former standard-bearers of his party. The absence from the campaign of figures like former President George W. Bush and 2012 candidate Mitt Romney reflects his distaste for Trump, but also plays into his self-characterization as a rule-breaking political outsider with no interest in the stamp of approval even. the elites of their own party.

“With all due respect, I worked for George W. Bush. I don’t think there are many people in the MAGA movement who were waiting to hear whether George W. Bush was endorsing somebody,” said Sean Spicer, a Republican strategist who served as Trump’s White House press secretary. “I think if this was three cycles ago, we’d be having a very different conversation.”

The dynamic shows how far the GOP has been overcome by anti-establishment passions, Spicer said. “The constituency is not looking to party elders for their blessing,” he said. “Nobody at the (Republican National) Convention said, ‘Where’s Mitt Romney?'”

It’s unclear how those strategies will play out in a race where Trump, despite having served as president, is positioning himself as a rebel, and Harris, despite her role as potentially the first woman to occupy the Oval Office, is being cast as a bulwark against Trump’s rule-breaking.

Harris, seeking to bolster that image, has garnered endorsements not only from Democratic leaders but also from a number of GOP figures and former Trump administration officials who are estranged from the former president.

On Monday, Harris played a three-state battle with former Republican congresswoman Liz Cheney, who denounced Trump’s actions as beneath the office of the presidency and told fellow Republicans why Harris would be the first Democrat to which has voted. Cheney’s father, former Republican Vice President Dick Cheney, also endorsed Harris, although he has not campaigned for her.

“It’s not about partying, it’s about right and wrong,” said Liz Cheney, who represented Wyoming in the House. “I certainly have a lot of Republicans who will say to me, ‘I can’t be public.’ They care about a whole range of things, including violence, but they’re going to do the right thing. And I just remind people that if you care, you can vote for your conscience and never having to say a word to anyone.”

Strategists say messages like this can reassure voters — including, Democrats hope, the sliver of the electorate that is still undecided — that like-minded people embrace Harris’ policies.

“It signals to voters, and to Americans, that this is a team effort … especially for Kamala, part of her message is that she’s building a broad coalition,” said Karen Finney, a Democratic strategist and spokesperson for Hillary Clinton. 2016 campaign. “When (Harris) says, ‘There’s a place for you,’ and you see everybody from Bill Clinton to Barack Obama to Jimmy Carter to Liz Cheney, you see all the different voices and faces saying, “We are part of the coalition. .’”

Still, Trump enjoys the active support of many Republican leaders, including House Speaker Mike Johnson (La.), whose narrow majority includes many members of districts that voted heavily for Trump. Other prominent Republicans, from Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina to Gov. Kristi L. Noem of South Dakota, have also embraced the former president.

But this election is Trump’s third as his party’s standard-bearer, and each race has featured notable showdowns with other top Republicans.

In 2015, Trump criticized Sen. John McCain, an Arizona Republican who was captured for five years by the North Vietnamese and who was the GOP presidential nominee in 2008. “He’s not a war hero. He’s a war hero because he was captured,” Trump said. “I like the people who weren’t captured.”

The contempt has run both ways. Seven years ago, Bush staged what many saw as a takedown of Trump during a speech in New York after Trump was elected. “Bigotry seems emboldened,” he said. “Our politics seem more vulnerable to conspiracy theories and outright fabrication.”

In response, Trump said Bush had “a failed and uninspiring presidency.”

Trump has also tangled with Romney, whom he has repeatedly called “failed presidential candidate Mitt Romney.”

In February, Romney said he would not vote for Trump, although he refused to endorse the Democratic ticket. “Having a president with such a flawed character would have a tremendous impact on the character of America,” Romney said. “And for me, that’s the main consideration.”

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has privately called Trump a “despicable human being,” a “narcissist,” “stupid” and “grumpy,” according to a new book by an Associated Press reporter Press Michael Tackett. Trump, in turn, has regularly insulted McConnell, calling him an “old crow.”

But McConnell also endorsed Trump this year, saying he had won the Republican Party nomination.

Instead, Harris has had a conveyor belt of former presidents and other top Democrats, deeply alarmed by the prospect of a second Trump presidency, line up to campaign with or endorse her since President Joe Biden passed the torch in July. During a speech at the Democratic National Convention in August, Michelle Obama said Harris was the heir to the movement that began with the election of Barack Obama.

“We did it before, all of us, and we can certainly do it again. We work like our lives depend on it, and we keep moving our country forward and we keep going higher,” the former first lady said.

Trump has no shortage of surrogates, although they are the least traditional. Tesla CEO Elon Musk, former presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and former congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) do not fit neatly into the orthodoxy of either party. This certainly gives Trump an audience of non-traditional voters.

“The great thing about the Trump surrogates is that it’s a new audience and a new constituency,” Spicer said. “And the people who follow Kennedy are furious. These are Republicans and non-traditional voters who will be new to Trump’s orbit.”

Musk, who has a net worth of $269 billion, announced that a super PAC he created for Trump will hand out $1 million daily in a lottery to swing state registered voters who sign a petition filed for the PAC’s voter recruitment campaign. Critics have questioned the legality of the effort.

Trump has also tried to play defense. When Liz Cheney appeared with Harris on Monday, for example, Trump portrayed the Cheneys as recklessly pro-war, apparently seeking to erode Harris’ support among Arab Americans unhappy with the US role in the Middle East.

Harris surrogates have unleashed free-flowing attacks on Trump and sought to shore up his support among crucial constituencies. Barack Obama, for example, berated black men who considered not voting for Harris because of what he considered latent sexism.

“My understanding, based on the reports I’m getting from campaigns and communities, is that we still haven’t seen the same kind of energy and participation in every neighborhood and every community that we saw when I was running,” Obama said. . “This seems to be more pronounced with siblings.”

“Some of it makes me think, and I talk directly to men … well, you just don’t feel the idea of ​​having a woman as president.”

He has also accompanied Trump on the campaign trail as the Harris campaign leaned more into questions about Trump’s mental fitness, talking about the Republican nominee’s sometimes meandering speeches and his take on issues such as serial killers fictional Hannibal Lecter.

“He called himself ‘the father of IVF,'” Obama said during a rally in Arizona last week. “I don’t know what that means. Neither do you. He said January 6th was ‘a day of love.’ … You’d be worried if your grandpa acted like that. No, no, I’m not kidding. You would, wouldn’t you?” ?Would you call your cousins ​​and say, ‘Did you notice?'”

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