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CNN
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No one can see a clear strategy in the cat memes that have dominated American political discourse during a pivotal election year.
But it’s worth considering why former President Donald Trump’s campaign and its supporters continue to simmer, rather than recovering from insults about “childless cat-loving women” and false stories about Haitian immigrants eating cats in Ohio.
Trump generally refuses to admit he’s wrong, so do they see the benefit in stirring things up?
Why else would Vivek Ramaswamy, an Ohio-based businessman and one of Trump’s most vocal and ardent supporters, announce he would hold a town hall meeting in Springfield, Ohio, the day after the Republican mayor of the city said at a press conference that he wanted neither side to use his city as a backdrop for political events?
That doesn’t bother the state’s Republican governor, who opposed the campaign visit and sent state police to city schools to assuage concerns about numerous bomb threats.
Why else would Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders begin her town hall event with President Trump in Michigan on Tuesday with a not-so-reserved reference to Vice President Kamala Harris’ personal life, rather than moving on from a spiteful criticism of women who do not have biological children?
Sanders appears to be criticizing Harris over her children
Sanders began by sharing a moving anecdote, saying his children humble him.
But then she had some harsh words for Harris, who, according to Sanders, “unfortunately, has nothing to keep her humble.”
Whether intentional or not, the insult touched off a new wave of reports that the Trump campaign doesn’t care about losing support from female voters.
Republican pollster Kristen Soltis Anderson told CNN she sees Sanders as having “the potential to be a really great message for women, for young mothers across the country.”
Perhaps that’s why the Trump campaign chose Sanders to interview the former president at a town hall event, as polls have shown that female voters have been drifting away from Trump since Harris entered the race.
But Anderson said the need to “put a little bit of pressure on Vice President Harris” contradicts that message.
Sarah Huckabee Sanders faces criticism for comments about Harris and her kids
Perceptions of the election are so entrenched that it may not matter whether Trump, his running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance, or another Republican is offended.
Nearly everyone has made their decision, CNN senior data reporter Harry Enten said during an appearance on CNN on Tuesday.
“In fact, this is the lowest percentage of undecideds we’ve seen in any poll to date in the entire 21st century.”
He was referring to poll tallies, and then Enten pointed me to a New York Times/Siena College poll conducted in September that showed similar results.
Enten argued that one of the challenges in appealing to this small but important group of voters is that campaigns may not know what they want: While a majority, 30%, list the economy as their top issue, he noted, the majority of undecided voters, 28%, say no issue is a top priority.
“What are you going to say to those who say, ‘Wait a minute, there’s nothing top of mind?'” Enten asked.
Will the cat meme cut through?
Enten said another factor that separates this small group of undecided voters from the rest of the country is that majorities of Harris supporters (70%) and Trump supporters (72%) say this election is the most important election of their lifetimes. Only about a quarter of undecided voters say this election is the most important election of their lifetimes.
And, particularly in the case of Springfield, some have argued that any coverage of immigration benefits Trump, whether he misstates the facts about Haitian immigrants, receives a gentle rebuke from the governor of Ohio, or misgenders a Puerto Rican reggaeton singer at a recent rally in Las Vegas.
Trump assumed musician Nicky Jam was a woman, which he is not, so it was a little awkward when he said of Jam, “She’s hot!”, and was joined by a tattooed man wearing a MAGA hat.
Incidentally, Jam is not the only Puerto Rican musician to endorse Trump. This hasn’t gotten as much attention as Taylor Swift or Billie Eilish’s endorsement of Harris, but in hindsight it may have made a difference in Philadelphia, which has a large Puerto Rican population. Pennsylvania is a big battleground state, even though it doesn’t have the largest Puerto Rican population in the mainland.
Every day that immigration becomes politicized, it’s a win for Trump, argues Lance Trover, a former adviser to North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum’s presidential campaign. Speaking on CNN on Wednesday, Trover noted that polls suggest a majority of Americans support mass deportations, for example, even though Haitians in Springfield are in the U.S. legally.
“I think the Trump campaign believes Americans are moving beyond the cats and dogs and the memes and that Americans as a whole are looking at this community and asking themselves fundamental questions: ‘What would happen if 10,000, 20,000, 30,000 people moved into my community?’ And that’s a legitimate debate to have across the country,” Trover said.
Running a verifiably false story, even if it focused on immigration, seems like a bold gamble; insulting women in an election that could be decided by a relatively small number of votes in a few states seems even bolder.
Anderson wrote in The New York Times that while Harris may be leading in national polls and Democrats remain enthusiastic and united behind her following her strong debate performances, it’s not yet clear that the race has materially changed. Polls still project a very close race in these key states.
“Of course, it’s better for your side to be more energetic than the other side, but as long as both sides vote, an enthusiastic vote is less important than a reluctant vote,” Anderson writes.
While Trump and Vance frequently complain about which words get picked up by the media, it’s hard to ignore that they continue to stir up these controversies with their words and actions.
There’s evidence that the attacks on Harris’ personal life are having an impact, but not a positive one for Trump, said Sarah Longwell, an anti-Trump Republican strategist who appeared on “The Lead” with CNN’s Jake Tapper on Wednesday.
“Every time I do a focus group with swing voters, they bring up J.D. Vance talking about cat ladies with no kids. This is the kind of thing that’s breaking through and making independent voters say, ‘Why do they keep attacking women?'”
“I’ve never seen a campaign so alienate the largest voting bloc in an election,” Longwell said.