A liberal columnist says Kamala Harris should repudiate Joe Biden’s unpopular positions and say she will be a change from her current boss to beat Donald Trump.
Harris has struggled to differentiate herself from Biden, who was underwater in the polls before dropping out of the race.
Jonathan Chait, a trusted left-wing pundit who pushed for Democrats to abandon Biden after his debate disaster in Georgia, now says Harris needs to “let Biden go.”
He criticized Harris’ CNN interview for “turning the page and comparing herself exclusively to Donald Trump, rather than her current boss.”
Chait then asks, ahead of Tuesday night’s crucial debate: “Why is this a fight? Why not just repudiate Biden’s unpopular positions outright?”
A liberal columnist says Kamala Harris needs to repudiate Joe Biden’s unpopular positions and say what a change from her current boss will be to beat Donald Trump
Harris has struggled to differentiate herself from Biden, who was trailing Donald Trump in the polls before he dropped out of the race.
He goes on to cite polls released by the New York Times on Sunday saying 61% of voters want someone to bring “major change” from Biden.
However, only 25% of respondents believe Harris represents a significant change from the president.
He says these poll numbers and Biden’s unpopularity before he dropped out of the race make him a “liability” to Harris.
For this reason, Chait argues that “Harris’ strategy should focus entirely on pleasing the public without paying any attention to Biden’s feelings.”
She ends her New York Magazine article by disagreeing with a Trump spokesperson who claims Harris is completely tied to Biden as vice president.
‘The vice presidency is a strange office, devoid of formal authority. Its occupants have generally lamented the powerlessness that comes with the role. Harris should stop thinking of her position as a limiting dilemma and realize that it is a liberating opportunity to define her campaign as she wants it to be, unburdened by what it has been.’
The latest polls, including the Times survey cited by Chait, have tilted the Daily Mail’s election model in Donald Trump’s direction, giving him a decisive lead over Kamala Harris a day before she goes head-to-head with her Democratic rival on the debate stage.
Algorithms show he now has a 55 percent chance of becoming president, up 4.5 points since last week.
Jonathan Chait, a reliable left-wing commentator who pushed for Democrats to abandon Biden after his debate disaster in Georgia, now says Harris needs to “let Biden go”
Chait argues that “Harris’ strategy should focus exclusively on pleasing the public without paying any attention to Biden’s feelings”
The model works by analyzing all the latest polling numbers (national and state) along with decades of historical trends and economic data before feeding the results to the electoral college to determine who is most likely to reach the 270 votes needed to win the election.
Our result comes on the heels of a New York Times/Siena College poll that gave Trump a one-point lead over the weekend, suggesting Harris’ honeymoon may be coming to an end.
Incorporating that and other recent polls into the model developed for us by JL Partners shows that the crucial battleground state of Pennsylvania has now clearly moved into Trump’s column.
A potentially defining moment will come Tuesday when Harris faces Trump in a televised debate.
The goal of Harris’ debate campaign is to create a viral moment similar to the one Harris experienced during her questioning of Brett Kavanaugh at his Supreme Court confirmation hearing and during her vice presidential debate with Mike Pence, when she told him, “I’m speaking.”
Those moments were repeated over and over on social media, putting her in good stead. Her advisers hope that many Americans will view the debate through those kinds of social media moments.
Trump, however, will be silent as Harris answers questions, denying him the chance to interrupt and her the chance to respond.
Harris is holed up with her staff in Pittsburgh, spending five days of intense debate preparation ahead of the Sept. 10 showdown in Philadelphia.
The debate will be the first time she and Trump have met.
The two have been in the same room before — Harris, as a senator, attended Trump’s State of the Union addresses on the House floor when he was president — but the two were never formally introduced.
The pressure is on. Joe Biden’s performance in the first presidential debate caused him to drop out of the race. Although no one expects the same result for Harris, she will have to prove that she can take on the former president.