Maggie Haberman Points Out Trump’s ‘Specific Line of Attack That He Uses on Women’
New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman assessed former President Donald Trump’s strategy for running against Vice President Kamala Harris.
Harris became the presumptive Democratic nominee after President Joe Biden ended his reelection bid on Sunday.
In a video posted on the Times website, Haberman said Trump’s campaign was entirely geared toward defeating the 81-year-old Biden, who had a disastrous debate performance against Trump last month. The former president has underscored Biden’s age and painted him was enfeebled.
“They believed Joe Biden would dig in,” Haberman said. “And they did not believe the Democrats would coalesce around Kamala Harris quite so fast.”
She went on to note that the vice president is leaning into the fact that Trump is a convicted felon and has been contrasting it with Harris’ history as a prosecutor.
“Trump is dripping with contempt for Harris,” Haberman said.
The video then played a snippet of Trump at a rally declaring, “There’s never been a lunatic like this in the White House.”
Haberman then explained that Trump is having difficulty landing on the right approach. Her analysis was interspersed with clips of Trump:
HABERMAN: He has described her as ‘”dumb as a rock.” He’s been trying out different nicknames for her, which is often a sign that he isn’t quite sure how to attack someone.
CLIP OF TRUMP: I call her Laughin’ Kamala.
CLIP OF TRUMP: Lyin’ Kamala Harris. L-Y-I-N apostrophe.
HABERMAN: Trump is pretty harsh about both female and male antagonists, but he does have a specific line of attack that he uses on women. He always describes them as mentally unstable.
CLIP OF TRUMP: No, she’s crazy. She’s nuts. She’s not as crazy as Nancy Pelosi. Crazy Nancy.
HABERMAN: Or describes them as weak, in the case of Hillary Clinton, saying–
CLIP OF TRUMP: She doesn’t have the strength and she doesn’t have the stamina to be president. She doesn’t.
Haberman went on to say that attacking Clinton in such a way was not as risky for Trump in 2016 because Clinton had been a public figure for decades.
“She had accumulated baked-in negative reactions with a portion of voters,” Haberman said. “Despite serving as vice president for four years, Kamala Harris is someone new to a lot of voters. She could increase turnout among Black voters. She could increase the gender gap that Trump is already facing.”
Haberman added that so far, Trump has decided to depict Harris as a radical liberal.
“That is the message that they want to frame,” she concluded.
Watch above via The New York Times.
