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In last week’s overview, we discussed how Robert F Kennedy JR’s decision to step out of the presidential race as a third-party candidate might have noticeable consequences on the Harris v Trump race. This week as we have seen some of those consequences play out, it’s clear that the Trump Campaign has grabbed the opportunity with both hands and are determined to use the Kennedy name in two main moves: one, in an appeal to non-traditional Republican candidates and voters in the middle and two, by situating themselves as a big-tent unity party.
As part of this strategy, the campaign has committed to finding a position for Kennedy in the Trump-Vance administration if elected and Trump went further at a campaign rally and announced to his supporters that if elected in November he would unseal the classified documents concerning the assassination of America’s 35th president, John F. Kennedy. In the spirit of attempting to appear like a big-tent, the campaign has also deployed the assistance of former US Democratic Congresswoman and veteran now turned Fox News regular Tulsi Gabbard to join the campaign as co-chair of Trump’s Presidential Transition Committee alongside RFK. The committee’s honorary chair is J. D. Vance. Gabbard’s addition to the campaign has created particular interest given that in the 2020 Democratic primary debate, Gabbard made headlines by criticising Harris on her record as a criminal prosecutor and her stances of US interventionism. Some have began to speculate that part of Gabbard’s role will be to help Trump prepare for the head to head presidential debate hosted by ABC on September 10th.
Monday afternoon, sparked an ongoing debacle for the Trump campaign, where campaign officials in a move partly orchestrated by US House Speaker, Mike Johnson took to Section 60 at Arlington Cemetery to leave wreaths for fallen US soldiers who lost their lives in action. Whilst the visit in part was a show of respect, the Trump campaign arrived with filming and photography equipment hoping to record material from the visit for a campaign ad that allegedly would contrast Trump with Harris who was not at the memorial event. A member of staff at Arlington, proceeded to block videos and photos from being taken given that it is against federal law and military policy to film campaign materials at military burial grounds. In the process of blocking the filming from taking place, the staff member was allegedly assaulted by Trump campaign officials culminating in a filed police report with the Arlington staff member choosing not to press charges. The US Army released a statement concerning the altercation, which it rarely does, and supported the staff member stating “This incident was unfortunate, and it is also unfortunate that the ANC employee and her professionalism has been unfairly attacked”.
On Thursday evening, the Harris Campaign sat down with CNN’s Danna Bash in Harris’s first sit-down interview since entering the race last month. The interview before it had even happen had become the centre of controversy. Republican surrogates as well as official members of the Trump campaign criticised Harris over her lack of interviews during her campaign and her preference to instead read speeches off teleprompters at her campaign rallies. The Harris campaign responded quickly with Harris committing to a sit down interview by the end of the month, which she did on Thursday. Yet when the campaign announced that Harris will be continuing the long practiced interview of a presidential candidate sitting down with their vice-presidential candidate for an interview to introduce them to the electorate, criticism from well known Republicans such as conservative personality Meghan McCain, daughter of the late Arizona Senator John McCain who ran against Barack Obama in 2008, took issue with the approach suggesting that not having Harris appear by herself made her appear weak.
During the interview, Harris covered a large range of issues. One of the most reported of her responses was when Bash questioned Harris about her significant policy changes between her first presidential campaign in 2019/2020 and the 2024 race, For reference, four years ago Harris proposed a national ban on fracking; endorsed a green new deal; suggested decriminalising the border and defunding the police. Now in this election cycle, Harris has changed her tune and has taken a more moderate attitude to fracking (most likely due to its importance to Pennsylvanian industry with the state been a key swing state she needs to win in order to secure the presidency) and is pushing for strong securing of the border vowing to sign the strictest border control bill in recent history if elected. When Bash enquired about how these significant changes in policy came about, Harris responded that whilst certain policy ideas have changed her "values have not changed". In response to Trump’s suggestion at a conference hosted by the National Association of Black Journalists last month that she has “turned black”, Harris dismissed Trump’s comments labelling it as “the same old tired playbook” and when pressed for further comment responded with “That’s it.” giving the issue little reaction.
During the interview and the days leading up to the interview Trump took to Truth Social and reposted a number of controversial posts by other users including Q’Anon conspiracy theories and one particular misogynistic quote which suggested that Hilary Clinton and Kamala Harris achieved their political success through sexual favours which caused rage on both sides of the aisle. In a CNN interview yesterday, Vance took on what might be the campaign's urgent attempt at damage control with Vance explaining the 45th president as a candidate “who likes to tell some jokes” and is “not stodgy”. The interview also questioned Vance about his own tweet of Miss Team USA’s pageant contestant Caitlyn Upton in a formerly viral clip where Upton struggled to answer questions during the contest and compared this to Harris’s interview performance on CNN. When asked if he felt bad for rehashing the moment which Upton in a 2015 New York Magazine issues described as leading to her feeling “very very depressed” and led to her having “dark moments where [she] thought about committing suicide”, Vance responded “I’m not going to apologise for posting a joke”.
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