Americans go to the polls on Nov. 5. But tomorrow night (Tuesday, Sept. 10), Harris and Republican nominee former President Donald Trump meet on the debate stage in Philadelphia. And the American public will finally get to see how the sitting vice president and Democratic nominee for president responds when she might be asked to defend her changing positions on key issues.
Harris’ shift on the need for a border wall, her energy policies and on Medicare-for-all have resulted in accusations of “flip-flopping.” But Vermont Democrat Sanders (right) says those are just campaign tactics.
“I don’t think she’s abandoning her ideals,” Sanders said on NBC’s Meet The Press Sunday. “I think she’s trying to be pragmatic and do what she thinks is right in order to win the election.” Harris herself said as much in a rare media appearance when she told CNN’s Dana Bash recently that her “values have not changed.”
"It's not shocking, but it is interesting that Bernie Sanders would say it out loud that, 'Yeah, she's lying to you' – and that's something we should all take to heart. She was the most liberal senator in the United States Senate when she was there. Now she's trying to pretend to be a moderate. And I don't think there's anybody who's really buying this – including people in her own party." (Janet Porter, founder and president of Faith2Action, in an interview with AFN)
GOP flip-floppers
Don’t be fooled by the Democratic nominee’s rhetoric, warns Marc Lotter, communications director for America First Policy Institute.
“Everything she had been saying, she’s saying the exact opposite now,” Lotter said on American Family Radio Monday. “If she were to be elected, there’s no doubt in my mind she would go back to her radical policies.”
Harris last Friday picked up an endorsement from Republican Dick Cheney, the vice president for George W. Bush. Republicans have been quick to dismiss Cheney’s party departure. “Some of this is that Donald Trump beat his daughter [Liz Cheney] by 39 points in her last election,” Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) said on CNN over the weekend.
Trump endorsed Liz Cheney’s opponent, Harriet Hageman, in the 2022 Republican primary for Wyoming’s At-Large Congressional district. Hageman won 66.3% to 28.9%. Like her father, Liz Cheney has endorsed Harris. Lotter essentially accused both Cheneys of being flip-floppers themselves.
“These are Republicans who supposedly for the entirety of their public life and service, and maybe even their entire lives, have fought for conservative ideas, conservative principles, whether that's low taxes, smaller government, peace through strength, a secured border, economic opportunity, and growth for all, who are willing to turn their backs on all of it,” he told show host Jenna Ellis.
Lotter, a former Trump staffer, paraphrased Sanders. “Bernie Sanders was saying, ‘She’s still a progressive. She’ll say whatever she has to say to get elected, but she’s still one of us.’”
Harris’ tactics are not groundbreaking among politicians. But while she can change what she says about what she’ll do, she can’t change the record on what she’s done. According to Lotter, that’s the tactic Trump needs to take when the two candidates meet in what could be their only debate. It will be moderated by ABC News journalists Linsey Davis and David Muir.
Harris: Pride in Bidenomics
Harris’ new vision for the future ignores the facts of today, Lotter said, leaving Trump a clear and easy path for attack.
He should say, “You … Kamala Harris, you are the reason why we have sky-high inflation, grocery prices, a wide-open southern border, the world at war. It was on your watch,” Lotter suggested.
In addition, Trump should remind viewers that Harris, as the presiding officer of the Senate, casts the deciding vote when senators are deadlocked at 50 apiece. So, Harris was the last one in the room on the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (H.R.5376).
“We fought to enact our Inflation Reduction Act, historic legislation that I was proud to cast the tie-breaking vote on in the Senate. In the two years since President Biden signed it into law, this landmark bill has already delivered for American families,” Harris argued in prepared remarks last month.
Lotter has more advice for the former president tomorrow night. Trump, he said, should ask, “How can you be the new way forward when you’re the reason we’re here now?”
And speaking for his fellow conservatives, Lotter said: “We remember that things were more affordable, gas was cheaper, the border was more secure, and the world wasn’t at war when Donald Trump was in office.”
Then there’s history to consider. Since Martin Van Buren in 1836, only one sitting vice president has been elected president in the last 188 years.
“That was George H.W. Bush – and that was because people wanted a third term of Ronald Reagan,” Lotter explained, adding: “People don’t want Joe Biden’s first term, let alone a second one with Kamala Harris.”
The ‘undecided’ – a critical bloc
The few undecided voters who will decide the election are still waiting to hear something from Harris or Trump, still waiting to be convinced.
“Elections are often about the future and who has that vision for the future,” Lotter said. “They're going to be disappointed because she can't separate herself from the problems that she caused today and say, ‘Well, I've got the answer.’ You don't hire the people who broke it to fix it.”
It would be an easier decision for voters, perhaps, if many of them could get past their dislike for Trump’s personality, he added.
“Maybe they don't like the way he tweets or that sometimes he says mean things about people. They're holding out hope. They want to hear Donald Trump say, ‘This is how I'm going to do it. I did it once before. Here's how I'm going to do it again,’” Lotter said.
Trump’s path to success
Lotter says Trump needs to stick to policy – his and Harris’ – to win the debate.
“He's got to point out that she was the tie-breaking vote for the American Rescue Plan and the misnamed Inflation Reduction Act,” he reiterated.
“He needs to point out [to Harris] that for three-and-a-half years you were the border czar. You didn't fix it then. Why do we think that you're going to fix it now? You were the one who broke it.
“Then he has to remind people that here are the things that we can do to secure the border: bring back Remain in Mexico [policy], finish the wall, deport criminal illegal aliens.”
9/10/2024 - Comments from Janet Porter added.
