How Trump Plans to Make Voters Hate Harris

[Bucky]

You'll be surprised to learn that Trump's plans involve rumor mongering, slander, and personal invective. But dig in, kids, and prepare to know your enemy. I recommend reading the whole thing (archive link shows your what's on the other side of the pay wall)

Link to article:
https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-donald-trump-plans-to-make-voters-hate-kamala-harris

Link to archive:
https://archive.ph/dLxGS

According to data from AdImpact, the Trump campaign and its affiliated super PACS shelled out 57 percent of the their television spending to anti-Harris campaigns, compared to the 8 percent dedicated to anti-Trump ads by the Democratic ticket, from Aug. 23 to Aug. 29.

“This is a moment in the message arc of us seeking to define her, she’s seeking to define herself,” a Trump adviser told The Washington Post.

“We have a defined candidate—everyone knows everything about the person. There’s lots of new information about Kamala Harris that people just don’t know.”

“Our focus every day is on ensuring the American people know Kamala’s dangerously liberal record and see her for who she is,” said the former president’s campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt. “A phony, radical, San Francisco liberal who would further spiral our once great nation into a sanctuary for illegal immigrants and a nightmare for law-abiding Americans.”

If that plan fails, “then you define her as a liar who you can’t trust,” Republican strategist Jeff Roe told Puck.

[Wounded Bear]

1. So, their "best" strategy is projection? Good luck with that...

[Bucky]

3. It worked in 2016... and 2004 ... and 2000 ... and 1988 ...and 1980...

It doesn't always work, but it does work often enough

[Gaytano70]

4. 2016 is not 2024

In 2016, Roe was the law. In 2021, tsf traitor attempted a coup. In 2024, tsf became a 34 times convicted felon.
Above all, Kamala Harris & Tim Walz were not the nominees in 2016.

[Self Esteem]

8. You missed 2012.

Obama won that election largely because of his negative assault on Romney in the summer of 2012. He worked to define him as a corporate raider, who would fire an entire plant to make a buck. And it worked. Especially when the 47% tape dropped and only reinforced that perception.

In the summer of 2012, the Obama campaign spent millions on negative attack ads.

Especially this brutal ad:

[Bucky]

15. Like all attack ads this was cherry picked facts

But it was facts. Trump isn't playing that game, which is essentially fair play in politics. Trump is gonna gin up lies and hated and nobody foreign peoples' reptilian stems where facts don't matter

[Self Esteem]

19. Maybe so but it was still very personal.

Having Romney singing 'America the Beautiful' as Obama attacks him on his business background ... is kinda rough. But it's politics.

[NYC Liberal]

10. The good news this time is, well, time.

All of those were normal-length campaign cycles with ample time for negative framing to work.

I don't believe they will be successful in the same way with just 60 days.

Meanwhile, Trump is a known entity and most people don't like him.

Ultimately, this election will be about getting out the vote. Democrats need to vote in massive numbers.

[Bucky]

16. I 200% agree on what out response should be

We should ALL volunteer to GOTV efforts.

[wryter2000]

2. You have one problem, pals

Only your brainwashed cult believes anything you say.

[birdographer]

6. Exactly

This will not change the mind of one voter now on board, and her tours are bringing us more voters. Nobody is going to buy this, we know Donnie now, we know his lies, we know and understand his desperation, and we are beyond sick of him. Only his cult will jump on this and believe every word. Kind of an empty threat.

[spanone]

5. They are world class liars.

[OAITW r.2.0]

7. The 3 undecided's left in the USA,,,,

Trump will grab 1, Kamala will get the other 2.

[SocialDemocrat61]

9. This is the same playbook he used with Clinton

It won’t work this time. Hillary Clinton was attacked and demonized by republicans and the media for over 25 years in 16. Same is not not true of Harris. He’ll just look like a bully.

[Cosmocat]

21. So far this is the dynamic

I tend to agree with this assessment.

Through no fault of her own, Hillary was a fragile public figure because of decades of republicans losing their minds over her. All of their screeching about her, the "middle" thought something had to be wrong with her, and the mindset that she was "unlikeable" because Rs hated her so much took on a larger than life size.

As someone else noted, with such a short cycle for Kamala, hopefully there is not enough time for them to turn it to shit for her, like they did with Hill and Joe over the last four years.

One other point about Kamala, she has a light air to her, she smiles easy and comes off as laid back. That hopefully warms her to the "middle" types.

[bluesbassman]

22. There where also two major institutional factors that played into it.

Russian election interference and the FBI’s involvement with the duplicitous Comey delivering the death blow. Both of those scenarios made in more effective by the years of propaganda leveled against Clinton by the GOP as you noted.

BTW, in case I didn’t make it clear f@&k Comey. I don’t know how he’s able to sleep at night. I hope he doesn’t.

[Cosmocat]

23. 100% agreed

Yes, the Russians tipped the scale the whole cycle, cause this country is that stupid.

And, yes, Comey did the dirt for sure. No reason at all for him to do what he did.

Hill probably would have had a close win if he had pulled that shit.

[LymphocyteLover]

11. I'm already seeing a lot of knives coming out for her on twitter, gross race-based attacks, distorting everything

[Bucky]

17. Call them out. If you're there, counter post with anti Trump facts

We're all frontline trips on this fight

[LymphocyteLover]

20. I try, but there's a lot of them

[JCMach1]

12. It will also have a voter suppression bent to it, trust

[Bucky]

18. So true. And that's why Harris has built a ground game to GOTV

[Metaphorical]

13. This may backfire bigly

This worked against Hillary Clinton, but Clinton had been vilified by the GOP for literally decades, and the smear campaigns worked largely because in 2016, the Democratic primaries did a lot of the damage even before the convention, so there weren't just seeds of doubt, but whole forests. Trump was also mostly a blank slate candidate.

This time around, there's really only around five weeks for the GOP to "define" (read "smear&quot Kamala Harris, and the overwhelming volume of negative ads are largely going to fall on the ears of people who have already made up their decision one way or another. What's more, there's no real scandal to pull from (that they haven't already inflicted upon themselves), and given the relatively short time frame, I just can't see the barrage of negativity helping them in any significant way.

[Bucky]

14. 0r it might not backfire. He's a wounded cornered wild animal

He's a toxic predator. Don't underestimate him like we did in 2016

[Deminpenn]

24. It's the same old, same old tired ads

There's the 2024 version of Willie Horton, this time starring an illegal immigrant criminal.
There's the 2024 version of "she's a liberal!".
And that's about all they have, but these ads are running all the time here in PA. I doubt they're persuading anyone.

I agree about Hillary, the Rs had been attacking her and Bill relentlessly since he became governor of Arkansas. By 2016, it was 30+ years of non-stop smears and hit jobs. Opinons about her were pretty set in stone by the time she won the nomination.

Trump is yesterday's news. Harris is the candidate of change like Trump was in 2016.