‘This kind of crap can’t be tolerated.’ Or can it? Harris navigates talk of race and sex as campaign begins.

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Rep. Tim Burchett, a conservative Republican from Tennessee, labeled Vice President Kamala Harris a “DEI hire.” Wisconsin Rep. Glenn Grothman told reporters Democrats “have to stick with her because of her ethnic background.” And Donald Trump gestured to the often crude conservative discussions of her relationship with former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown three decades earlier.

“These are attacks that none of us are surprised by,” Senator Laphonza Butler, a California Democrat and close Harris ally who is the only Black woman in the upper chamber, told Semafor. “We have to have her back at every turn because this kind of crap can’t be tolerated.”

Black Democrats say they are watching the conversation on the right around Harris and preparing to defend her from criticism that they say unfairly diminishes her achievements based on race and gender. Butler said she’d call out political arguments that were “trying to convince the American people that the place for women is in the kitchen or in the bedroom.”

But the party is also torn over how to respond, with some worrying about being baited into a debate over racism and sexism that could consume the campaign just as they’re re-introducing Harris to the broader electorate.

“While we need to call out that racism and sexism, we cannot let it distract from talking to voters about what’s at stake in this election, including how their policies harm Black people and women,” Rep. Jennifer McClellan of Virginia told Semafor.

“I think as Democrats we must keep our eyes on the prize — that is defeating convicted felon Donald Trump,” Rep. Nikema Williams of Georgia said.

New Jersey Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman suggested that Democrats like herself could take the lead in defending Harris, freeing the candidate up to focus on her national message.

“She doesn’t have to speak to that issue,” she said.

One Democratic pollster said they did not expect “DEI” attacks to resonate outside circles already committed to voting against Harris and that Democrats should be “focusing on the positives” in her biography to build up her image. Another Democrat predicted Republicans would inevitably hurt themselves by walking into a conversation about race and gender that would distract from the GOP’s own economic message.

Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester, currently running for Senate in Delaware, offered up one potential model to respond: Defend Harris and then pivot to bread-and-butter issues.

“Republicans are attacking the Vice President because they are scared of her ability to prosecute the case against Donald Trump for the American people,” she told Semafor. “Kamala Harris is qualified, experienced, and effective — that’s why President Biden picked her as Vice President because together, they have accomplished so much, from lowering the price of prescription drugs, pushing for an economy that works for everyone, and fixing our roads and bridges.”

Harris isn’t the first candidate to confront these issues and her reaction will shape the party’s response the most. Barack Obama, on the campaign trail, largely ignored attacks his campaign believed were racist. Hillary Clinton sought to redirect the conversation to challenges faced by ordinary women.

Both faced similar tactical questions to Harris: Is there more electoral advantage in rallying Democrats — or swing voters — to her side as the victim of out-of-bounds attacks? Or does she believe that her path lies in strictly talking about abortion, taxes, and other agenda items that Democrats are desperate to push back to the top of the public’s priorities?

The View From Republicans

Democrats aren’t the only ones who are warily gaming out the new political calculus around Harris.

While conservatives protest that it’s unfair to label discussion of Harris’ qualifications as out of bounds when Biden emphasized gender and race in making his decision, Republican campaign officials so far seem to view discussing Harris’ record in demographic terms as a political dead end.

“It’s certainly not something I’m going to say,” National Republican Congressional Committee chair Richard Hudson told Punchbowl News when asked about the “DEI” conversation. “I’m going to remain focused on the policies.”

Early opposition research and strategy papers from the Trump campaign and other Republican groups have all emphasized more conventional attacks on Harris: Tying her to Biden’s record on immigration and inflation, accusing her of covering up his aging, and portraying her as closer to the left on issues like crime and the environment than the candidate she replaced. One memo by the National Republican Senatorial Committee suggested labeling her “weird” — Trump calls her “Laffin’ Kamala,” a reference to her signature chuckle — but focused on her “extreme agenda.”

Republicans this cycle have eagerly sought to capitalize on polling gains with Americans who have previously been cool to Trump, especially nonwhite voters. The Republican National Convention was retooled to emphasize “unity” after the Butler shooting and present Trump as an elder statesman rather than a culture warrior. The programming included a speech from hip hop influencer Amber Rose rebutting accusations of racism against Trump, along with a number of speakers who emphasized their immigrant backgrounds and assured voters that Republicans are only concerned about border security.

But campaign officials can only exert so much control over a broader conversation that will be driven as much by Elon Musk and Candace Owens as any professional operative. And the person who will ultimately set the tone for the party the most is Trump himself.

Already there are some signs the former president has personally changed his thinking from the 2020 race, which featured Harris as Biden’s running mate. He did not bring up the Willie Brown story at that time; this month he said on Truth Social that people should ask Brown why Harris is regarded as a “highly talented” politician, in quotes. In conservative circles, there’s an overtly sexualized version of this discussion: Commentators like Megyn Kelly accused her of sleeping with Brown to advance her professional prospects. (Brown wrote in 2019 that he’d helped many Democrats with their careers: “The difference is that Harris is the only one who, after I helped her, sent word that I would be indicted if I ‘so much as jaywalked’ while she was D.A.”)

One attack that Trump did briefly touch on with Harris in 2020, however: Falsely questioning her eligibility for the presidency, an echo of the “birther” case he made against Barack Obama, as well as related attacks against Republicans Nikki Haley and Ted Cruz.

While Trump has not referenced the topic again, some of his close allies have already picked it back up: Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, shared an old op-ed this week by former Trump attorney John Eastman questioning whether Harris, who was born in the US, should be legally barred from the White House because her parents were immigrants.

Marc Short, a longtime advisor to Mike Pence, said that Trump’s former running mate was not given instructions to avoid “off limits” attacks on Harris in 2020 while preparing for their debate that cycle, noting that it’s just “not Mike’s style” to engage in that way. But the circumstances have also changed: The goal for both Trump and Pence was to focus attacks on Biden and defend the incumbent’s record.

“It feels like if you’re attacking number two, then you’re taking your eye off number one,” he said. “So, I do think it’s a little bit different.”

Step Back

The political conversation on the right has also changed since 2020. The party has embraced a broader “anti-woke” backlash and conservatives have become far more confident accusing all kinds of institutions, from political parties to TV studios, of unfairly promoting women and minorities.

These claims have at times become an annoyance for Republican campaign officials. Over the weekend, top Trump campaign aide Chris LaCivita strongly rebutted a widespread meme on the right alleging that the Butler shooting was exacerbated by the US Secret Service assigning women to guard the president.

At the same time, Trump’s running mate JD Vance has often attacked race-based requirements and claims of white “privilege” as unfair. On Monday, he broadly accused Democrats at an Ohio rally of trying to restrict what Republicans can say about their opponents by labeling it “racist.”

But Vance also floated a new attack on Harris that seemed almost designed to bait liberals: Accusing Harris of not showing enough “gratitude” to her country. It was “a dog whistle calling her uppity,” New York Times editorial writer Mara Gay said on MSNBC.

Notable

• The Bulwark’s Marc Caputo reports the Trump campaign plans to take a page from the 1988 George H.W. Bush campaign’s “Willie Horton” ads in order to portray Harris as soft on crime.

• The New York Times’ Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan note that Trump has a history of harsh responses when confronted with political attacks from women and minorities — especially when they make the kinds of arguments that Harris has already.