By On Sunday afternoon, Donald Trump defeated a Democratic nominee for the second time. Joe Biden, the sitting president and presumptive nominee, was cast aside by Democrats worried about his polling.
Then, roughly a half hour later, Donald Trump got his second gift: his opponent will likely be the one Democrat who could do worse than Biden.
According to CNN, President Joe Biden has endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as the next Democratic presidential nominee after announcing on Sunday that he is withdrawing from the race.
Should Harris officially become the party’s standard-bearer, she would be the first Black woman and first Asian American to lead the ticket of a major political party.
The historic endorsement comes after weeks of disarray within the Democratic Party, following a disastrous debate performance by Biden that called into question his ability to win a second term and govern for another four years. Biden ended his campaign Sunday amid growing calls from members of his party to step aside.
Logistically, Harris is the natural heir to the ticket as Biden’s running mate. She would inherit the Biden campaign’s massive political operation and war chest. Recent polling has also shown her performing better against former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, than Biden and other potential Democratic contenders.
Should there be efforts to pass over Harris in favor of Democrats seen as likely to run in 2028, there may be backlash from the vice president’s supporters and prominent Black Democrats. But Harris has also experienced something of a renaissance within her party, as Democrats showered her with praise in the days following the debate.
While there may be a temptation to take on Harris at the convention, the two leading potential challengers for the nomination, Gretchen Whitmer and Gavin Newsom, have both announced that they will stand down.
“There’s no one at this moment preparing behind the scenes to challenge Vice President Harris.”
Sources close to Gavin Newsom and Gretchen Whitmer — two Democrats considered possible contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination — tell @costareports they are “preparing… pic.twitter.com/1p6cspBodB
— CBS News (@CBSNews) July 21, 2024
The Trump campaign immediately jumped on the news, according to The Hill.
“Kamala Harris owns the entire left-wing policy record of Joe Biden,” Donald Trump Jr. posted on Truth Social. “The only difference is that she is even more liberal and less competent than Joe, which is really saying something. She was put in charge of the border and we saw the worst invasion of illegals in our history!!!”
“Kamala Harris is just as much of a joke as Biden is. Harris will be even WORSE for the people of our Nation than Joe Biden,” Trump campaign senior advisers Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles wrote. “Harris has been the Enabler in Chief for Crooked Joe this entire time. They own each other’s records, and there is no distance between the two. Harris must defend the failed Biden Administration AND her liberal, weak-on-crime record in [California].”
Trump’s main super PAC quickly launched ads that will begin airing in Pennsylvania, Georgia and Arizona attacking the vice president.
BREAKING: The Trump Campaign just released this ad of Kamala Harris.
Share this everywhere!
— Ian Jaeger (@IanJaeger29) July 21, 2024
“Kamala was in on it. She covered up Joe’s obvious mental decline. Kamala knew Joe couldn’t do the job, so she did it,” the narrator reads, with footage of Harris praising Biden interspersed.
“Look what she got done: a border invasion, runaway inflation, the American Dream dead. They created this mess. They, no, Kamala, owns this failed record,” the ad concludes.
Harris doesn’t perform especially better than Biden in national polling, noted The New York Times.
“Across recent polls, Ms. Harris trails Mr. Trump by two percentage points nationally on average, 46 percent to 48 percent.
This is an improvement over Mr. Biden’s standing in the race: He trailed the Mr. Trump by three percentage points in the polling average, 47 percent to 44 percent.”
