Vice President Kamala Harris described her likely upcoming fight against Donald Trump as one between a prosecutor and a criminal, describing, from her new campaign headquarters on Monday, her experience facing “predators,” “con artists” and “cheaters.”
Meanwhile, around the same time, Trump took to Truth Social to call Harris “dumb as a rock.”
The comments, both made as Trump and Harris began preparing to face off after President Joe Biden announced he would not seek reelection, provided a glimpse into the expected lines of attack from the two candidates.
Trump, who during a rally in Michigan on Saturday night called Harris “crazy,” “unhinged” and “Kamala the Laughter,” will likely resort to ad hominem attacks against her, while Harris is expected to lean on her experience as a prosecutor and Trump’s status as a felon with extensive legal troubles.
On Monday, Trump posted a message expressing his displeasure at the television coverage he saw of Harris and Biden.
“Wow, I just watch the Fake News and they are doing everything they can to turn the worst President in the history of our Country into a ‘brilliant and heroic leader’ (he was heroic because he resigned!), and to turn ‘dumb as a rock’ Kamala Harris from a totally failed and insignificant VP into a future ‘great’ President,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Monday. “No, it just doesn’t work that way!”
Trump’s insults to his opponent’s intelligence are not limited to Harris. At Saturday’s rally, Trump used the word “stupid” no fewer than 13 times, more than half of which were in reference to Biden, whom he also repeatedly called “low IQ.” During the Republican primaries, Trump nicknamed Nikki Haley “Brainiac.”
Trump has long made sexist comments against women who cross his path, particularly during his successful 2016 presidential campaign. At the time, he attacked not only Hillary Clinton, the first female candidate of a major political party, but also other female candidates, including Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina and conservative journalist Megyn Kelly.
During his campaign against Clinton, Trump mocked her for “yelling,” accused her of having only “the woman card” to play, of not having “the look” to be president, and, notably, of being a “nasty woman.” More recently, Trump has launched personal attacks against black Democratic women like New York Attorney General Letitia James and Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.
His comments about women — often cited by critics discussing his unpresidential “rhetoric” — have previously cost him support among suburban and college voters, despite his Electoral College victory in 2016. A repeat of similar verbal attacks on Harris could spell new trouble for Trump in an election he has been solidly leading for months.
While Trump has been trying out new nicknames and lines of attack against Harris, his campaign and allies, for their part, have sought to link Harris to unpopular Biden policies, most notably the southern border.
“Same year, same people, same record of failure, same outcome,” Trump advisers Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles wrote of Harris in a “State of Play, Day 1” memo Monday night, calling her “Kamala Harris, the Border Czar.”
Speaking to campaign staff in Wilmington, Delaware, on Monday, Harris distilled her case against Trump.
“I was a prosecutor in court. In those positions, I faced off against perpetrators of all kinds,” Harris said. “Predators who abused women, scammers who ripped off consumers, cheaters who broke the rules for their own benefit. So hear me when I tell you, I know Donald Trump’s types.”
Harris went on to say that Trump “wants to take our country back to a time when many of our fellow Americans did not have full freedoms and rights.”