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WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican leaders are advising party members not to use blatantly racist and sexist attacks against Vice President Kamala Harris as they and former President Donald Trump’s campaign try to adjust to the reality of a new Democratic rival less than four months before the election.
In a closed-door meeting with House Republicans on Tuesday, National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) Chairman Richard Hudson of North Carolina urged lawmakers to limit criticism of Harris’ role in the policies of the Biden-Harris administration.
“This election is going to be about policies, not people,” House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters after the meeting.
“For Kamala Harris, this is not personal,” he said, adding, “Her race or gender has nothing to do with this at all.”
The warning highlights a new risk for the Republican Party as it faces a Democrat who, if elected, would create the first woman, first Black woman and first person of South Asian descent to hold the White House. Trump, in particular, has a history of racist and misogynistic attacks that could turn off key blocs of swing voters, including suburban women, as well as nonwhite and young voters that the Trump campaign has been courting.
Some Trump insiders and allies began describing Harris, a former district attorney, former attorney general and former senator, as a “DEI” candidate, referring to the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Initiative.
“Intellectually, it’s really at the bottom of the pile,” Rep. Harriet Hageman of Wyoming said in a television interview. “I think she’s the DEI candidate. I think that’s what we’re seeing, and I don’t think they have anybody else.”
Since Biden announced his withdrawal from the race, Republicans have unleashed a litany of attacks on Harris, including attempts to tie her to Biden’s most unpopular policies and his management of the economy and the southern border. Trump campaign officials and other Republicans have accused Harris of colluding to cover up Biden’s health problems and have been digging into her record as a prosecutor in California to try to portray her as soft on crime.
Johnson claimed that both Trump and Harris have White House political backgrounds and said voters can compare how the family performed under Trump with how it performed under Biden.
“She is the co-owner, co-creator and conspirator of all the policies that have gotten us into this mess,” Johnson said.
Biden announced his withdrawal from the race on Sunday. Tony Fabrizio, a Trump campaign pollster, said in a memo on the state of the race on Tuesday that the fundamentals of the race have not changed as Harris appears increasingly likely to become the Democratic nominee.
“Replacing one Democratic nominee with another will not change voters’ dissatisfaction with the economy, inflation, crime, open borders, housing costs, not to mention concerns about two foreign wars,” the post reads. “More importantly, voters will also learn about the dangerous liberal record Harris had before becoming a Biden ally.”
Hudson told attendees at Tuesday’s meeting that the NRCC is focusing on how Harris is more progressive than Biden and essentially “owns” all government guidelines, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Sen. Steve Daines, D-N.Y., chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, echoed the criticism, calling Harris “too liberal.”
“She wasn’t some Irish Catholic girl who grew up in Scranton. She was a liberal from San Francisco,” Daines said.
Trump said something similar when speaking to reporters on Tuesday.
“He’s the same as Biden, but more radical. He’s a radical leftist, and this country doesn’t want a radical leftist destroying it. She’s far more radical than he is,” he declared.
“So I think it should be easier than Biden because he’s slightly more traditional, but not by much,” he added.
Later, in an interview with Newsmax, Trump claimed Harris had “destroyed the city of San Francisco” — even though the Democrat resigned from her job as San Francisco’s district attorney in 2011 — and called her “the worst person.”
“Kamala Harris is just as weak, failed, and incompetent as Joe Biden, and she’s just as dangerously liberal,” the Trump campaign said in a statement. “Not only must Kamala defend her support for Joe Biden’s failed agenda over the past four years, she must also take responsibility for her abysmal record on crime in California.”
Trump has a long history of launching particularly vitriolic personal attacks on women, from former Fox News host Megyn Kelly to his 2016 primary opponent Carly Fiorina to New York Attorney General Letitia James, who successfully sued him and his company for fraud.
In a July 4 post on his Truth Social network, Trump mocked Harris’ poor performance in the 2020 Democratic primary, adding: “That doesn’t mean she won’t! Becoming a ‘very talented’ politician is a sign of future success! You only have to ask his mentor, the great Willie Brown of San Francisco.” Harris dated Brown in the mid-1990s.
Trump seems particularly bothered by the strong, intelligent women who attack him, said Stephanie Grisham, a 2016 campaign adviser who served as his White House press secretary but broke up with Trump after the Jan. 6, 2021, bombing of the U.S. Capitol.
“She’s going to piss him off,” Grisham predicted, noting that when Trump is attacked, “he attacks 1,000 times harder.” “He’s not going to be able to avoid this.”
He added that when it comes to women, “their thing is to attack appearance and call women stupid. “That’s what he did, and I don’t think it’s going to be any different now.”
Rep. Maxine Waters of California, a key member of the Congressional Black Caucus and one of the first Democrats to take on Trump, said she is ready for what lies ahead as the Republican Party turns the race toward Harris.
“The first thing that comes to my mind is the attacks from Trump and the MAGA right, which have already begun,” Waters told the AP. “They’re going to be unpleasant; they’re going to be nasty.”
Waters said such an approach could backfire on Trump.
“The danger is that he’s so arrogant and selfish that he’ll trample on women and that will backfire,” he said.
If Trump does confront Harris as he claims he will, the dynamic on the debate stage could intensify.
Republican pollster Neil Newhouse said Trump is unlikely to debate Harris as he did with Biden, or as he did with another female rival, Democrat Hillary Clinton, in 2016.
“I don’t think Trump will strike the same tone in the debate with Kamala Harris as he did in the debate with Hillary Clinton. Kamala Harris doesn’t have Hillary’s weaknesses and is a relatively new political face,” he noted. “Maybe need to be careful.”
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Colvin reported from New York. Associated Press writers Michelle L. Price, Stephen Groves and Amelia Thomson DeVeaux contributed to this report.
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