Let’s start with the obvious. Today, Democrats want to talk about Harris’ closing message and the good GDP report, but Biden has given them the task of cleaning up. Harris’ quick reaction as soon as she saw the cameras Wednesday morning shows how much Democrats have learned from that “deplorable” moment eight years ago. Rather than dwelling on what Biden had to say, they are emphasizing that they disagree with it. Without more oxygen, this entire saga could be over by sunset, as Biden told New Hampshire Democrats last week that they needed to “lock[Trump]up … politically.” (If you’ve never heard of this, that’s what I mean.)
If it continues, it will be due to one of the great successes of modern conservative messaging: making Democrats bite when they say something insulting to non-Democrats. .
The modern version of this began in April 2008. Barack Obama told a California donor disgruntled with his failure to win the Pennsylvania primary that some people in marginalized towns were “clinging to guns, clinging to religion, or clinging to injustice.” “I feel animosity towards people who are in this position.” I don’t like them, I don’t like anti-immigrant sentiment, I don’t like anti-trade sentiment. ” This lived on as proof that Obama (who performed better in rural areas than any subsequent Democratic candidate) hated small-town America. The “deplorable” moment was even more powerful and was immediately embraced by the Trump campaign, which has been searching for similar-sounding lines ever since.
Biden’s gaffes are missing some of the elements that drove those stories. Obama and Clinton were talking to donors, and their analysis sounded even more patronizing. He is no longer a candidate. Republicans are trying to obfuscate this point by claiming that Harris, who said she disagrees with Biden, actually agrees with him.
Their confidence comes from experience. Announcing something as the “new deplorable” was pretty effective, at least in terms of freezing the news cycle. In April 2020, after Biden told donors that it would likely be impossible to win over die-hard Trump supporters, he said, “There are some supporters who like the fact that the president is engaging in divisive politics.” Trump’s campaign claimed that he supported it. “Condescendingly describes all of them as deplorable racist xenophobes.” A year later, Biden said Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves was engaging in “Neanderthal thinking.” After speaking, Reeves claimed to have heard echoes of Clinton’s gaffe.
“Today, I feel the same way I felt the day Hillary Clinton called all of us in Central America ‘deplorables,'” Reeves said.
The nefarious machine can be activated by anyone. Last year, the Trump campaign said after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said conservatives should be rooted in principles and not “a lethargic vessel that just follows whatever happens to society of truth.” , Trump claimed to support Clinton. -Style gaffe. “Ron DeSanctimonius appears to be having a ‘basket of deplorables’ moment,” said Trump strategist Jason Miller. Mr. DeSantis denied that, but then retracted his statement.
Ms. Harris has been far more cautious than Mr. Trump’s other opponents. That’s not surprising. Her campaign team includes a veteran who was injured after touching a “deplorable” stove during the 2016 Clinton campaign. On several occasions, she has dodged questions aimed at revealing whether she dislikes people who voted for President Trump. In a Fox News interview this month, Bret Baier pressed Harris on why so many voters still support Trump if he is “as bad as you say.”
“Are 50% of people misguided?” Bayer asked. “Are they stupid? What is it?”
Harris did not take the bait. “I would never say that about the American people,” she said, adding that President Trump is “someone who tends to demean, belittle and diminish the American people.”
If Biden’s mistakes don’t hurt his campaign, that’s probably why. Harris is too cautious to make it himself. And she’s the one on the ballot.
