Bring it on!’ is the response from Republicans to the almost certain prospect that Kamala Harris is to be their opponent in November.
They think she is a joke. ‘Cackling Kamala’, as Trump calls her, is the star of a thousand internet memes in which she looks awkward, talks oddly, not making sense — a bit like her predecessor.
Caught on camera discussing the Vice President earlier this month, Trump was as brutal as you would expect: ‘She’s so bad,’ he said, ‘she’s pathetic.’
Trump will destroy her, the Grand Old Party (GOP) believes. And they know that if the Democrats seriously thought she could be a success, the party would have already endorsed her.
But what if the Republicans are all wrong? What if Trump is making a grave error in underestimating Kamala’s strengths and assuming he’s on track to win in November?
Indeed, there are plenty of Democrats who quietly hope — and maybe half believe — that Kamala has the power to reinvent herself.
Kamala (pictured) is not yet 60. In comparison to 81-year-old Biden and 78-year-old Trump, she’s practically a spring chicken
Donald Trump (pictured), as she will endlessly remind people, is a convicted felon
US President Joe Biden delivers remarks on a vaccination update from the State Dining Room at The White House, on April 6, 2021 in Washington, DC
To recycle a slightly cumbersome phrase she has used on numerous occasions, Kamala is now ‘unburdened by what has been’. She is free from working for Joe — and she might yet bring down Donald Trump.
Some suggest that Kamala’s fightback started well before Biden quit the race.
Look at the money she raised in the first 24 hours. Her campaign team is claiming it was a cool $230 million.
It was the biggest fundraising day of the 2024 election cycle — and probably a record amount for any candidate on day one. Money matters: if you are to grab the attention of the vast majority of Americans who couldn’t care less about politics, you must pay. She will have the cash.
Kamala’s supporters are now hoping she can formulate a message that resonates with a nation that in many ways was equally unenthused with both Trump and Biden. She can tap into a hunger for a divisive and volatile chapter to be closed in American life.
Kamala is not yet 60. In comparison to 81-year-old Biden and 78-year-old Trump, she’s practically a spring chicken.
US Vice President Kamala Harris arrives to speak during an event honoring National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) championship teams from the 2023-2024 season, on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, DC on July 22, 2024
US President Joe Biden speaks before signing executive orders on health care, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on January 28, 2021
She is also — for all her gaffes and ‘word salads’ — a very successful woman. As Attorney General of California, she was a bold and tough prosecutor, unafraid to put people in jail.
Donald Trump, as she will endlessly remind people, is a convicted felon.
During her brief time in the Senate she made waves: famously asking one of Donald Trump’s candidates for the Supreme Court, now Justice Brett Kavanaugh, whether there were ‘any laws that give government the right to make decisions about the male body’ — a reference, of course, to abortion rights. The exchange went viral on social media.
She has been an effective and constant campaigner for women’s rights and there is no doubt that many Americans feel very strongly about the issue.
Many Democrats blame Donald Trump for appointing the Supreme Court Justices who repealed the Roe v Wade ruling in June 2022, ending the constitutional right to abortion.
Recent history has shown that when abortion is on the ballot — as it has been in some state elections recently — the Democrats do well.
Former US President Donald Trump during the Republican National Convention (RNC) at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, US, on Monday, July 15, 2024
US Vice President Kamala Harris (C) marches across the Edmund Pettus Bridge to commemorate the 57th anniversary of ‘Bloody Sunday’ in Selma, Alabama on March 6, 2022
It is, in other words, an issue that unites Democrats and divides Republicans. Kamala can energise the issue and fiercely take on those in Trump’s party who want to ban abortions completely.
Her strong record on the subject will surely give her a confidence that she did not have in the past. There is something weird that happens when power gets close: you become a ‘serious person’ almost by default — and this could happen to her.
Crucial to Kamala’s prospects could be her choice of running mate. Normally the VP doesn’t matter too much, but in such extraordinary circumstances, it might. A steady governor of a swing state that the Democrats need to win might help Harris to convince Americans that she means business.
But there remains one thing in the way of her future success as a politician. She needs to take charge now. To strut her stuff on the world stage so that she can meet Trump as an equal.
That means Joe Biden standing down, not just from the campaign, but from the presidency itself. Stubborn Joe, of course, is determined to stay in the Oval Office as long as he can.
But there is a precedent for this that, eerily, might be relevant. President Boris Yeltsin of Russia shocked his nation at the beginning of this century when he announced his resignation as president just six months before the end of his term — and handed over power to his favoured successor, the then Prime Minister of Russia.
His name was Vladimir Putin. It worked out well for him. I am making no direct comparison, of course, but it can help to get the feet under the desk early.
Justin Webb presents the Americast podcast on BBC Sounds.
