Harris and her team can play upon this tendency within Trump. For now, Trump may laugh off such things as Vance’s “childless cat ladies” comment, saying, Vance feels ‘family is good.’ And the MAGA base simply won’t care
and will, as previously mentioned, follow Trump
down any path he wishes to go. But that is not the case with the more moderate members of the GOP or undecided voters unfamiliar with Vance, as already noted. Vance was pretty much an unknown first term senator and unvetted except by the Donald Trump, Jr. and the libertarian leaning Zuckerberg,
Joe Lonsdale, Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, and PayPal Mafia members Peter Thiel and Elon Musk. Making America aware of Vance’s willingness to change his views when convenient while still maintaining hard core right-wing ideological commitments could color him as the second Mike Pence, which would further introduce skepticism if not division in the party.
To accomplish this, Harris and her team need not focus on the Office of the Vice President as most people vote for the person who is running for president not the vice president. But, focusing on the changes in personal outlook and policies expressed by Vance can further create doubt and sow division within the Republican Party and among undecided voters – particularly, more moderate suburban women. This is why Harris and her team need to lean into comments made by Vance, both in the past and in the present. Reminding voters of Vance’s past comments – Trump is “America’s Hitler,” Trump is a “demagogue” who was “willing to exploit the people who believe crazy shit,” “the more white people feel like voting for Trump, the more Black people will suffer.” – will demonstrate Vance is an extreme opportunist, whose fundamental abhorrence of Trump cannot be white-washed away through a claim he changed his mind after watching Trump
perform as president.
Equally, leaning into Vance’s policy positions – Vance wants a total ban on abortion, wants a “federal response” to women traveling across state lines for an abortion, claims Democrats are a ‘bunch of childless cat ladies with miserable lives,’ argues that childless Americans, (especially those in the country’s “leadership class”) were “more sociopathic” than those with children and that this made the country “less mentally stable,” claims the “most deranged” and “most psychotic” commentators on Twitter – now known as X – were typically childless, argues childless parents don’t have a vested interest in America’s future, wants parents and non-parents to be taxed differently – will demonstrate Vance is an extremist who will not temper Trump as did Pence but encourage more outrageous authoritarian tendencies, something people have long feared. Such tendencies can even be heard being spouted by Vance. Vance talks about “completely replacing the existing ruling class with another ruling class” and about the need to "over-throw" the “people who currently actually control the country.”
The reality is: the more and more Harris pushes on these policies, the more and more time
Trump will have to spend defending Vance and less and less time promoting himself. It will also open Trump to having loyalists and supporters question his decisions. It might also raise the
Harris must drive home the existential threat that Trump and Vance pose to the American Republic. She must continually focus on and emphasize facts, which will bring down the temperature in the room as facts transparently presented.
93