Kamala Harris' campaign strategy includes calling Trump's camp 'weird.' It could work, campaign experts say.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

TFG and Vance are weird. I like this line of attack

Link to tweet

https://www.newsbreak.com/share/3542784694826-kamala-harris-campaign-strategy-includes-calling-trump-s-camp-weird-it-could-work-campaign-experts-say

In the days after President Joe Biden dropped out of the race and his running mate Kamala Harris ascended to the top of the Democratic ticket, the vice president immediately began running a notably different campaign , generating a level of energy that was sorely missing among her base......

One of the most notable shifts with Harris is in tone and how the campaign has chosen to contrast the vice president from her opponent's camp.....

Some of that messaging remains the same with Harris. But voters are also seeing the campaign hurl more direct insults against Trump and his team, calling them "old," "weird," and "creepy."

"Trump is old and quite weird?" one memo from the Harris campaign read.

JD Vance , Trump's running mate from Ohio, is also "weird" but also "creepy," other press releases from the Harris campaign have said, rebutting Vance on his anti-abortion views and his comments from 2021 about single " childless cat ladies " dragging down America......

Costas Panagopoulos, a political science professor at Northeastern University, told BI in an email that Harris' attacks on Trump are "sharper and more focused and the Trump campaign is scrambling to figure out how best to respond."

"A major advantage Harris has is that Trump has not spent the past 8 years demonizing and attacking her as he has Joe Biden," Panagopoulos wrote. "The Trump campaign's need to pivot at this late stage is a challenge."

Democratic strategist Tim Hogan told Politico that Harris' messaging is effective because "it's simple" and reflects "how you might talk to your neighbor about the crazy political climate we're living in."

[LetMyPeopleVote]

1. MSNBC just released a devastating montage highlighting all the times Democrats called Donald Trump and JD Vance weird.

Link to tweet

[yardwork]

2. Trump and Vance are weird.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

5. Trump is weird. Spread the word.

Link to tweet

[yardwork]

16. Weird is an effective anti-Trump label.

There are plenty of people who can't defend Trump's behavior but fall back on "...but I like his policies." They mean they're scared of crime and immigrants. Nobody trusts a guy who's weird, though.

How is the weird guy going to defend us? It undermines Trump's fake populism.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

22. I loved when the Harris Campaign posted this

Link to tweet

[BeyondGeography]

4. It all started here

This was the dawn of weird:

Link to tweet

?s=46&t=UDtLaS-w7g67AF4Q2Xb1mg

[oasis]

23. I loves me some Tim Walz.

[meadowlander]

25. Also a bit here:

[LetMyPeopleVote]

6. I really wish that Hillary had done this in 2016

TFG stalked Hillary in the debate and this is a great way to call TFG out

Link to tweet

[Dave Bowman]

7. Cults and cultists are usually weird and creepy so that's fitting.

[blm]

8. Perverted control freak

[NoMoreRepugs]

9. Don't "campaign experts" lose 50% of the time in aggregate? Asking for myself.

[Grins]

10. It's too polite. How about vindictive?

Revengeful?
Cruel?

[Zoomie1986]

14. Those haven't worked so far

They're more combative and put the conservative crowd on the defensive. But weird has negative connotations while being less threatening. It's sort of a 'reset' term that you can use to have people not get up in arms, but do a double-take instead. 'Weird? Why do people think he's weird? Well, okay (the person could start filling in the blanks with how obsessed he is about windmill cancer or 15 flush toilets or...).

It's a bit of psycholinguistics jiu-jitsu that can turn the argument on the other side.

[yardwork]

17. "Weird" is devastating. Remember, this is for Trump's followers.

Trump's followers don't like being associated with anything weird. To us progressives, weird can be a good thing, but we already know we're not going to vote for Trump.

[BannonsLiver]

36. Nah, weird is just right.

[The Magistrate]

11. Who's This Weird Old Felon Republicans Want For President?

He ain't just a weird old felon, he's creepy....

[LetMyPeopleVote]

12. The personification of Weird

Link to tweet

[GoreWon2000]

13. I think dangerous is the better word choice.

I don't think that the word weird adequately conveys the danger and threat that tRump and his fellow Nazis represent to our country. The threat and danger of tRump his Nazis and Project 2025 is an all hands on deck 10 alarm fire. This is especially true given tRump's comment to the religious right that he'll end elections if they vote for him in 2024. This tRump comment should be put into a Harris campaign ad and run 24 hours, 7 days a week until election day. Women have the most to lose if tRump and his Nazis get back into power and take control of their bodies. Project 2025 spells out in great detail how tRump and his Nazis plan to take control of women's bodies. The 2024 election for women is a matter of life and death for women. Women's reproductive rights and defending democracy will decide the 2024 election. I don't think the word weird conveys the threat anywhere close to adaquately on these 2 crucial issues. This is what the message needs to be. Just my 2 cents based on more than 20 years of working on dem election campaigns, including Presidential campaigns.

[yardwork]

18. A lot of Trump's followers want him to be dangerous.

They believe he'll be dangerous to the people they're afraid of. It's part of his fake strong man persona. They'll even go along with his flirting with being a dictator. Anything to keep them safe.

Weird, however, totally undercuts that appeal. And, he and Vance are demonstrably weird - as Walz said, they're in our bedrooms, our exam rooms, our libraries. Weird old men obsessed with sex.

[GoreWon2000]

34. I don't think weird conveys the

danger that both women's lives and democracy are in if tRump and his magas get back into power. GOP women in particular need to be told that women will again die from illegal abortions and democracy will be dead. tRump has already said publicly that 2024 will be the last election if he gets back in. This is an all hands on deck 10 alarm fire. I don't think weird cuts it for the threat that our country is facing. Just my 20 years of csmpaign experience speaking.

[yardwork]

37. It's just one part of the messaging.

Yes, we need powerful ads about the damage new abortion laws are wreaking, and ads about Project 2025, etc.

However, many of these undecided swing voters are not influenced by facts. If they were, they wouldn't be undecided. The crucial swing voters are influenced by emotions. They vote based on their feelings about the candidate. The weird talking point is very effective.

[GoreWon2000]

41. I'm not convinced

I spent 20 years watching pro choice repug women cross party lines because they knew that their right to control their own body was on the line.

[yardwork]

43. Well, I've seen the opposite, frankly.

Way too many women still vote Republican and that's why we're where we are.

I think the DNC has needed a new approach to campaign communications for a long time. I like what I'm seeing from Harris's team.

Also, I think "dangerous" is exactly the wrong term to use against Trump. His whole campaign is built on being "dangerous." Ridicule deflates him.

[GoreWon2000]

45. It's called the gender gap.

Since 1980 women have clearly voted differently than men. It's called the gender gap. Reproductive rights have been a big part of the reason why that is. Pro-choice repug women do vote for dems when they know their rights are on the line. The numbers are the proof. We're where we are today thanks to a corrupt GOP SCOTUS majority who disenfranchised our entire country in 2000. That's how we got Alito and Roberts on the SCOTUS. I've had too much experience watching pro-choice GOP women vote in this manner. Just look at the results of the statewide pro-choice ballot initiatives that won in heavily repug Kansas, Ohio, Kentucky and Montana. Our country is now facing an all hands on deck 10 alarm fire. tRUmp is a dangerous dictator who'll take our fundamental rights away. Women could die if this happens. This is what's at stake in this election and this is the case that needs to be made.

[BannonsLiver]

38. Yeah well 20 years experience or not, weird is working.

[GoreWon2000]

39. I'm not convinced it's working

There's no margin for error in getting this wrong either. The stakes are too high.

[BannonsLiver]

40. I'm sorry you feel that way.

[Ocelot II]

27. MAGA *likes* him dangerous. Weird is much more effective.

Weird can mean a lot of things, but it connotes abnormal, even pervy. The GOP wants to be seen as the party of "normal" Americans, but if TFG and Vance and their followers can be shown as not normal, that's a lot more powerful.

[GoreWon2000]

32. Weird doesn't adequately convey the

danger for women's lives or democracy if tRump and his maga extremists get back in power. Portraying tRump as the dangerous extremist dictator that he is will get more women in particular to vote for the V.P. Just my 20 years of campaign experience speaking.

[Ocelot II]

35. Democratic/liberal women already know what he is and how dangerous he is.

We don't need to be reminded. "Weird" is aimed mostly at independent voters who don't pay much attention to politics. It de-normalizes him.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

15. 100 days left to keep these weirdos out of office.

Link to tweet

[yardwork]

19. It's good to use Robinson against Trump.

Trump endorsed and promoted Robinson. Tie them together and let them drag one another down.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

20. #TrumpIsWeird is trending

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

[canetoad]

21. Maybe I'm reading too much into this

But I don't think so. This strategy, along with the non-specific insults (weird, creepy) is how the internet and it's inhabitants talk.

Using these simple words is 'de-normalizing' trump, his insults and his followers. It's striking back at the media and press who report on him as though he is just another fundamentally decent candidate running for president.

He is not.

But too many words have been wasted on trying to describe his twisted personality and view of the US. I hate to say this, but I see this as an way of 'othering' trump and the magats.Wiping them out of normal society because they are...weird and creepy.

[Buckeyeblue]

24. During Trump's 4 years, I often described it as weird

Each day, without fail, was weirder than the previous day. It never stopped.

[doc03]

26. I noticed that I think it is a pretty good description of the MAGA party.

[Blue Owl]

28. Could work? Oh, it's already working....

[UniqueUserName]

29. weird AND skeered (scared) /nt

[Think. Again.]

30. Honesty is the best policy. They ARE weird.

[Cha]

31. TY & Team Harris!

[Rob H.]

33. You mean this isn't the way a totally normal human person drinks water?

No way! /s

[get the red out]

42. Being noble and above the fray

Doesn't ring with peopkle as well as Trumps sickening trops and nicknames (whether you love them or hate them). People need memes now, the world is a different place in the social media age.

And they are horrifically weird. If they ran Bigfoot and a Werewolf it wouldn't be as weird as these two (nor as dangerous).

[Happyhippychick]

44. Trump and Vance: weird and creepy

That is all

[LetMyPeopleVote]

46. Democrats Are Defining Trump As Weird And It's Working

Link to tweet

https://www.thedailypoliticususa.com/p/democrats-are-defining-trump-as-weird?r=f805&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

For nine years, it has been happening. Donald Trump would do abnormal, bizarre, norm-shattering, and, in some cases, illegal things, and the media would respond by normalizing his behavior.

To understand why the media normalizes Trump, it is important to acknowledge that the major media outlets in the United States are run by large corporations whose only motive is to maximize profit. The corporate media, as a structure, doesn’t care about democracy, norms, or whether a political leader is damaging society.

Corporate media coverage is structured to not disrupt access to important people and to try to appeal to the largest possible audience by treating all sides of the political conversation equally......

Months ago, Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN), chair of the Democratic Governors Association, started calling Trump and the Republicans weird. He went viral for his bluntness. The Democratic Governors Association started amplifying Walz’s accurate description of the Republican nominee and his policies.

Here is Walz talking about why he started calling Trump weird:

It was never Joe Biden’s style or brand of politics to call a political opponent weird, but when Kamala Harris became the presumptive Democratic nominee things changed.