A left-wing columnist says Kamala Harris must reject Joe Biden’s unpopular positions and outline how she can be an alternative to her current boss to defeat Donald Trump.
Harris has struggled to distinguish himself from Biden, who was underwater in the polls before dropping out of the race.
Jonathan Chait, a reliable left-wing commentator who urged Democrats to dump Biden after his disastrous Georgia debate, now says Harris should “let Biden go.”
He criticized Harris’ CNN interview for “turning the page by 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 aren’t we rejecting Biden’s unpopular positions out of hand?”
A liberal columnist says Kamala Harris must reject Joe Biden’s unpopular positions and say how she will be a change from her current boss to defeat Donald Trump
Harris has struggled to distinguish himself from Biden, who was trailing Donald Trump in the polls before dropping out of the race.
He then cites polls released Sunday by the New York Times showing that 61% of voters want someone from Biden to bring about “big changes.”
However, only 25% of respondents see Harris as a major change from the president.
He says these poll numbers and Biden’s unpopularity before he withdrew from the race make him a “burden” for Harris.
Chait therefore argues that “Harris’ strategy should be entirely focused on serving the public, without any regard for Biden’s feelings.”
He concludes his New York Magazine piece by disagreeing with a Trump spokesman who claims that Harris is fully aligned with Biden as vice president.
“The vice presidency is a strange office, without any formal authority. Its occupants have generally complained about the powerlessness of the job. Harris really should stop thinking of her position as a limiting dilemma and realize that it is a liberating opportunity to define her campaign as whatever she wants it to be, unencumbered by what has been.”
The latest polls — including the Times poll Chait referenced — have tipped the Daily Mail’s election model in Donald Trump’s favor, giving him a decisive lead over Kamala Harris, a day before he faces his Democratic rival on the debate stage.
The algorithms show he now has a 55 percent chance of becoming president, an increase of 4.5 percentage points from last week.
Jonathan Chait, a reliable left-wing commentator who urged Democrats to dump Biden after his disastrous Georgia debate, now says Harris should ‘let Biden go’
Chait argues that ‘Harris’ strategy should be focused entirely on serving the public, without any regard for Biden’s feelings’
The model works by taking all the latest polls (national and state), along with decades of historical trends and economic data. The results are then fed to the Electoral College to determine who is most likely to receive the 270 votes needed to win the election.
Our results come hot on the heels of a New York Times/Siena College poll that gave Trump a one-point lead over the weekend, suggesting Harris’ honeymoon is coming to an end.
When we factor this and other recent research into the model that JL Partners developed for us, it turns out that the crucial battleground of Pennsylvania has now shifted clearly in Trump’s direction.
A decisive moment comes on Tuesday when Harris takes on Trump in a televised debate.
Harris’ campaign is aiming for the debate to create a viral moment similar to what Harris experienced when she questioned Brett Kavanaugh during his Supreme Court confirmation hearing and during her vice presidential debate with Mike Pence, when she famously called him out by saying, “I’m going to speak.”
Those moments played out over and over again on social media, putting her in a good light. Her advisers expect that many Americans will see the debate through these kinds of social media moments.
However, Trump will be on mute while Harris answers questions, preventing him from interrupting and her from snapping back.
Harris and his team are locked down in Pittsburgh, where they have been intensively preparing for the September 10 debate in Philadelphia for five days.
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The debate marks 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 Union addresses in the House chamber when he was president, but the two have never been formally introduced.
The pressure is on. Joe Biden’s performance in the first presidential debate resulted in his exit from the race. While no one expects the same outcome for Harris, she will have to show she can take on the former president.