President Kamala Harris? Trump campaign argues it could happen quickly if Biden wins

The Trump campaign wants to convince you that electing Joe Biden would quickly put Kamala Harris in charge of the country.

No evidence exists of such a plan. But day after day, his backers portray Harris, the first woman of color to run on a major party’s presidential ticket, as a dangerous radical ready to benefit from a Nancy Pelosi plot to sideline Biden.

“Pelosi’s plan: Remove Biden if Elected and Install Kamala,” says a Thursday video from the Trump campaign. “Pelosi’s plan: Help Kamala Remove Biden from office.”

“He can’t even function to complete a sentence...This is basically Kamala Harris’ puppet show,” said Kimberly Guilfoyle, a top Trump fundraising official, on the campaign video broadcast “The Right View” Thursday night.

The emphasis on Harris stems in part from Republicans’ difficulty making the accusations against Biden stick.

While Biden, 77, occasionally stumbles over his words, the attacks ignore the fact he has largely overcome a stutter that began as a young child. He is in fine physical condition; his doctor said in December the candidate is healthy and vigorous. He has a record of 47 years as a senator from Delaware and eight as vice president, accumulating a recording that he can argue is hardly radical.

“Biden has some appeal to white non-college voters in a way that potentially no other Democratic candidate could have matched,” said Kyle Kondik, managing director of the nonpartisan Sabato’s Crystal Ball.

Harris, on the other hand, “has somewhat less of a record, and the narrative is she’s an extremely left U.S. senator from a thoroughly blue state,” said Don Levy, director of the Siena College Research Institute in New York.

Trying to demonize Harris also helps feed several preconceived notions about a woman running for office, experts said.

“This has overtones of playing into a stereotype, that women should be less aggressive and outspoken,” said Susan Roberts, professor of political science at Davidson College in North Carolina.

“Of all the accomplished leaders Trump has attacked over his term, his insults and attacks against Kamala Harris only expose his ugly nature and crude use of sexism and racism for political gain,” added Aimee Allison, founder and president of She The People, a national network of women of color.

Trump earlier this month told conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh that “Joe is in no condition to be a candidate. We can say it nicely or we can say it badly. The 25th Amendment that crazy Nancy’s playing around with — she’s gone crazy, she’s a nut job — but this 25th Amendment, I think they put it in so they can get Kamala in.”

The notion of any such plan is absolutely false, said Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill.

She has never mentioned any such plan, and the video takes several Pelosi comments out of context.

Earlier this month, Pelosi introduced a plan to create a bipartisan, 16-member commission that could determine whether an ailing president is fit for office.

Four members would be chosen by Republican leaders and four by Democratic leaders, from medical personnel, physicians and other medical authorities. The other eight could include high-ranking executive branch officers, former presidents, surgeon generals or cabinet members.

Pelosi said she felt compelled to take this step because of President Donald Trump’s bout with coronavirus. Trump was hospitalized for three days, and has since returned to work.

While her proposal does not affect Trump in his current term, which ends in January, she said it “applies to future Presidents, but we are reminded by the necessity of action by the health of the current President.”

Pelosi is shown in the video as saying “The 25th Amendment creates a path preserving stability if a president suffers a crippling physical or mental problem and is, in the Amendment, ‘Unable to discharge the powers and duties off his office and transfers his powers.’ at her news conference.” As Pelosi says this, a big picture of a confused-looking Biden appears.

Later in the video, she asks, “Why now? Because this is part of our agenda,” as viewers are warned “Don’t vote for President Kamala.”

The full Pelosi quote is “Why now? Because this is part of our agenda for the people.” She then talks about Democratic initiatives on health care, infrastructure and other issues.

Mobilizing the base

Levy, whose organization surveys voters in several swing states, said the message is aimed at ensuring Trump voters are motivated to get to the polls.

“They’re trying to mobilize the base. They’re trying to scare people by the thought of a President Harris,” he said.

In North Carolina, a key swing state, the New York Times-Siena poll last month had Trump winning 65% of the vote of whites without bachelor’s degrees. That’s down from Trump’s 69% showing in 2016, according to network exit polls.

Harris is deeply unpopular with this group, as about two-thirds viewed her somewhat or very unfavorably.

In Georgia, another state that could be close, 70% of whites without four years of college support Trump, according to an Oct. 8 to 12 Quinnipiac University Poll. Trump won 81% of that vote four years ago, according to the exit polls.

President Harris?

On the video broadcast Thursday, Guilfoyle maintained Harris has been “working with AOC and the squad for the platform that Joe Biden is running on.” AOC is Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., a favorite target of Trump loyalists, and the squad refers to four liberal congresswomen of color.

Harris’ Senate voting record has been among the most liberal in Congress. Americans for Democratic Action, a liberal advocacy group that compiles ratings based on major votes, gave her perfect scores in 2017 and 2018.

Fourteen senators, all Democrats, had perfect scores in 2017 and 10 had 100s in 2018. The Democratic Senate average was 88.8 in 2017 and 88.6 in 2018.

She had backed Sen. Bernie Sanders, Ind.-Vt., and his Medicare for All plan, but softened that position last year and said she could see some role for private insurers.

The Democratic party 2020 platform was written largely before Harris was chosen for the ticket in mid-August. It avoids mentioning several of the major initiatives that the party’s more liberal wing champions, such as defunding the police, universal health care or the Green New Deal.

Rep. Rashida Talib, D-Mich., one of the “Squad” members, voted against the platform because it did not embrace universal health care.

Trump and his backers also keep citing examples of what they see as a frail Biden and couple that with a warning.

When Harris was chosen for the ticket in August, conservative talk show host Tucker Carlson said that “in just a few months she could run the country. Everyone knows that.”

Comparing Harris and Biden, he said, “only one of them knows what day it is.”

Guilfoyle told viewers Thursday Biden is “basically just like a fill in, a write on (sic) like name on the ballot to just stand there for their radical agenda. He’s like a placeholder.”

In December, Dr. Kevin O’Connor, Biden’s personal physician, wrote a detailed three-page summary of the candidate’s medical condition.

“Vice President Biden is a healthy, vigorous 77-year-old male who is fit to successfully execute the duties of the presidency, to include those as chief executive, head of state and commander-in-chief,” he concluded.