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The stories that matter on money and politics in the race for the White House
Kamala Harris has released the first digital video of her White House bid, as her campaign team races to define her image as a moderate centrist in the face of a barrage of attacks from Donald Trump and Republican critics depicting her as a radical liberal.
The video shows Harris at her first big rally in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, this week, combined with images of Trump and his running mate JD Vance to lay out the contrast Democrats see in the November election.
“There are some people who think we should be a country of chaos, of fear of hate. But us, we choose something different, we choose freedom,” says Harris in the video, which includes music from Beyoncé’s hit song “Freedom”.
“The freedom not just to get by, but get ahead. The freedom to be safe from gun violence. The freedom to make decisions about your own body,” she adds, in a reference to abortion, a core issue for Democrats as they accuse Republicans of restricting women’s reproductive rights.
The video on Thursday comes as Trump and Republicans have launched early broadsides against Harris, a former California prosecutor and US senator, seeking to portray her as hyper-liberal on issues ranging from immigration to crime and energy policies.
Joe Biden’s decision to leave the White House race has forced the Trump campaign to pivot its strategy quickly from attacks on the president’s physical and mental fitness to criticism of Harris.
Having massively increased its fundraising in recent months, the Trump campaign is also in a position to launch an early advertising blitz across the swing-states in an effort to define her in the mind of the voters that will decide the election.
At a rally in Charlotte, North Carolina on Wednesday night, Trump launched his own frontal assault on Harris, giving her the nickname “Lyin’ Kamala Harris” and calling her a “radical crazy person”.
“You’ve been terrible at everything you’ve done,” Trump told his new opponent for the White House, as he spoke to his supporters. “You’re ultra liberal. And we don’t want you here. We don’t want you anywhere. Kamala. You’re fired.”
In the battleground states, Dave McCormick, a Republican candidate for Senate, released his own advert this week attacking Democratic incumbent Bob Casey for backing Harris. McCormick called Harris the “most liberal nominee in US history”.
While Republicans are trying to label Harris as a proponent of ultraliberal policies, the vice-president has been a mainstream Democrat, who previously attracted criticism from the left for her past as a prosecutor.
The Biden administration has also attracted criticism from the progressive Democrats for its support for Israel’s war in Gaza and its recent restrictions on immigration through the US’s southern border.
Harris did not attend Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to the US Congress on Wednesday evening.
While Harris’s candidacy has energised the Democratic party’s base, her biggest challenge will be to attract swing and independent voters to her side over Trump.
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