The Trump campaign has publicly maintained that Harris’s replacement as the Democratic candidate for the White House has not changed the race, and that she is also responsible for the public’s dissatisfaction with Biden’s leadership. On July 22, the day after Biden withdrew from the race, Vance told reporters that there was no difference between running against Harris and running against Biden.
“I don’t think the political calculus changes at all,” Vance said. “We were fighting against Joe Biden’s open borders, Kamala Harris’ open borders. Kamala Harris was supporting the Green New Scam. And, frankly, Kamala Harris was defending Joe Biden when it was clear that he had been mentally incompetent for a long time.”
“The Democrats are jumping from the fire into the frying pan,” Trump adviser Jason Miller said in a July 22 interview with Fox News. “They may have solved one of their problems with Joe Biden, but they’ve inherited a whole new problem with Kamala Harris.”
Trump himself said he was nostalgic about facing Biden (“He’ll always be my first choice”), while also dismissing Harris as “worse than Joe.”
But Vance offered a different assessment to donors on Saturday before attending a Trump rally in St. Cloud, Minnesota. He said Republicans must work to shape people’s opinions of Harris because she is not as well-known as Trump or Biden.
“We have a very unique opportunity, but we also have a very unique challenge, because, let’s be honest, 10 days ago, everybody had an opinion about the two candidates who were running for president. Love them or hate them, everybody has an opinion about Donald Trump and Joe Biden over the last eight years,” Vance said. “But with Kamala Harris, people don’t really know.”
Vance said he was trying to define Harris based on her past positions, which he said include opposing fracking, praising the “defund the police” movement and supporting decriminalizing illegal border crossings. Her campaign said she would not ban fracking. Harris has denounced “defunding the police” since becoming Biden’s running mate, and the current administration opposes decriminalizing border crossings.
During the fundraiser, Vance said he asked Trump senior adviser Suzie Wiles how the race had changed, and Wiles responded that she was confident Trump would win because people prefer Trump’s policies over Biden’s.
Two national polls conducted since Biden’s withdrawal placed Trump and Harris within the margin of error, reversing earlier results that showed Trump leading Biden in the same survey.
“Poll after poll shows President Trump leading Harris as voters become aware of Harris’ weak, failed and dangerously liberal policies,” Vance spokesman Will Martin said in a statement Monday. “Harris’ far-left ideology makes her even more dangerous than Joe Biden’s, especially in key battleground states that will decide this election, including Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.”
Merrill Kornfield contributed to this report.
