As hard as it was to pretend they didn’t mind Joe Biden passing his presidential torch to Kamala Harris, Donald Trump’s team clearly decided it was better to claim the race remained the same.
In public, J.D. Vance followed the GOP line, insisting the day after Biden dropped out that he didn’t think the “political calculus changes at all.”
But in a meeting with private donors, Trump’s running mate told a different story, according to a report in The Washington Post.
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“All of us were hit with a little bit of a political sucker punch,” Vance reportedly said at the fundraiser in Golden Valley, Minnesota, on July 27.
“The bad news is that Kamala Harris does not have the same baggage as Joe Biden, because whatever we might have to say, Kamala is a lot younger. And Kamala Harris is obviously not struggling in the same ways that Joe Biden did,” he added.
Vance said Republicans would have to work harder to change people’s opinions of Harris because she wasn’t as well-known as Biden.
“We have a very unique opportunity, but also a very unique challenge, because, let’s be honest, 10 days ago, the two candidates who were running for president, everybody had an opinion about ’em. Love ’em or hate ’em, everybody has an opinion about Donald Trump and Joe Biden after the past eight years. But Kamala Harris, people don’t really know,” he told donors, according to the Post.
The GOP vice presidential nominee said the campaign will focus on Harris’ positions on fracking, law and order, and immigration to press a political advantage.
Vance’s spokesperson Will Martin told the paper that polls showed Trump leading Harris because of her “weak, failed and dangerously liberal agenda.”
“Her far-left ideas are even more radioactive than Joe Biden, particularly in the key swing states that will decide this election like Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin,” he added.
