As Harris' campaign ramps up, Trump and allies sharpen race- and gender-based attacks

When President Joe Biden announced he was dropping his re-election bid and throwing his support to his vice president, Kamala Harris, the dynamics of the entire presidential race radically shifted. 

No longer was it two white men born in the 1940s facing off — again — for who should return to the White House. Instead, it’s between Trump, a man who is 78, against Harris, who is 59 and would make history as the first woman and first woman of color to be president if she is elected. 

And within a day, Harris was already facing attacks that centered on her race and gender, making it clear that while Republicans may try to tie her to some of Biden’s policies, she will face criticisms he never did. 

It is some of the same playbook that Trump and his allies ran the last time a woman was on top of a major-party ticket. In 2016, Hillary Clinton’s qualifications, look and voice were also scrutinized. But this time, Republicans are also going after the background of Harris, the daughter of an Indian mother and a Jamaican father. 

Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., called Harris a “DEI vice president” on social media, referring to workplace policies that promote diversity, equity and inclusion that conservatives have maligned. 

“When you go down that route, you take mediocrity, and that’s what they have right now,” Burchett told CNN. 

Sebastian Gorka, a host on the conservative network Newsmax who served in the Trump administration, said Harris was going to be the nominee “because she’s female and her skin color is the correct DEI color.” He also said she “cackles like an insane woman.”

Fox News host Jesse Watters said Harris secured Hillary Clinton’s endorsement, “obviously, because she’s a woman.”

And Richard Grenell, U.S. ambassador to Germany in the Trump administration, told NBC News that Harris was part of a “revolving door of DEI appointments from the straight white male governor, who hands out appointments to keep different groups happy and at bay,” referring to California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat. “Kamala Harris is a product of this whole system. She’s very far left, unvetted and untested.”

Before she became vice president, Harris won two terms as a district attorney in California and was elected three times statewide as attorney general and then U.S. senator. Trump, who had a successful career in real estate and entertainment, had no government experience before he became president. 

In 2016, Trump repeatedly accused Clinton of playing the “woman’s card” to get where she is, going after her “strength” and “stamina” and mocking her voice. 

“She’s got nothing else going on,” he said of his opponent, who had been a senator from New York and secretary of state. “And frankly, if Hillary Clinton were a man, I don’t think she’d get 5% of the vote.”

“If she didn’t play the woman’s card she would have no chance, I mean zero, of winning,” he said on another occasion. 

“The only thing she’s got going is the fact that she’s a woman,” Trump also said in an interview with NBC’s “Today” show.

Trump brought out a “card” attack against Harris on Tuesday, but this time, it was the “race card.”

On a call hosted by the Republican National Committee, Trump said Harris “played the race card on a level you rarely see” during the Democratic primary debates with Biden in the 2020 election. 

“It’s a well-worn playbook for him,” said Democratic strategist Karen Finney, who was a spokesperson for Clinton’s 2016 campaign. “But the reality is we also know that people wouldn’t use the playbook if it didn’t work to some degree.”

“Even in 2016, there were so many times it was so over the top and so disgusting. But I think coming against Kamala Harris, and perhaps it will be both race and gender ... maybe the combination of both is what will stand out to people,” she added. “And I think the country is changing, and it’s going to be more blatant to people how disgusting and inappropriate it is.”

In a statement, Trump campaign press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Harris was “just as weak, failed and incompetent as Joe Biden — and she’s also dangerously liberal.”

“A vote for Kamala is a vote for more crime, inflation, open borders, high gas prices, and war around the world, and our team will make sure every American knows it,” she added. 

Going after DEI policies wasn’t yet in vogue in 2016, but the current criticism echoes the attacks that Clinton wasn’t qualified enough. On Monday, the New York Post reported that Trump told it in an interview that Harris was “vicious” and “dumb.” 

On Monday, Trump called Harris “Dumb as a Rock” on social media, and for years, he has consistently mispronounced her first name (as did many other speakers at last week’s Republican National Convention).  

In 2016, Trump also said Clinton didn’t have “the look” to be president — but she wasn’t the only one to face those insults. He also mocked his primary opponent Carly Fiorina for having a “face” that voters wouldn’t want to choose. 

Trump has long insulted his opponents, including men. But the insults directed at Clinton echoed attacks that women in positions have power have long faced, questioning their qualifications, strength and appearance. 

Defending Fiorina — whom he had named as his running mate, even though he hadn't won the GOP presidential nomination — Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said at the time: “Donald has a problem with strong women. This is not subtle; it’s not complicated.” 

Cruz, another person who once had an acrimonious relationship with Trump after he ran against him in the 2016 primaries, has since put aside those differences and is backing him this time around. 

In a New York Times op-ed Tuesday, Clinton addressed the "sexism and double standards" that "strong women candidates" face in politics. 

"I’ve been called a witch, a 'nasty woman' and much worse. I was even burned in effigy. As a candidate, I sometimes shied away from talking about making history. I wasn’t sure voters were ready for that. And I wasn’t running to break a barrier; I was running because I thought I was the most qualified to do the job," she wrote. 

"Ms. Harris will face unique additional challenges as the first Black and South Asian woman to be at the top of a major party’s ticket. That’s real, but we shouldn’t be afraid. It is a trap to believe that progress is impossible," Clinton added. 

Harris has also already faced comments centered on her race and gender from Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio. In 2020, Trump promoted the baseless “birther” conspiracy theory that Harris — who was born in the U.S. — isn’t eligible to be president because her parents were born in other countries. Trump has also pushed birther conspiracy theories about Cruz, former President Barack Obama and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley. 

In 2021, Vance went after Democrats who don’t have biological children of their own, calling them “a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable, too.” He mentioned Harris — who has two stepchildren, Cole and Ella — along with Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York. 

“How does it make any sense that we’ve turned our country over to people who don’t really have a direct stake in it?” he said at the time. 

His spokesperson Taylor Van Kirk told The Associated Press, “It’s well known that Senator Vance found success in life due in large part to the influence of strong female role models like his grandmother.”

Former Democratic National Committee Chair Donna Brazile said, “The most convenient playbook in American politics has always been race, and race is always going to be a driver of conversation.

“But this is no time to go back using a playbook from the 20th century," she added. “We’re in the 21st century. ... I don’t believe that the American people are interested in a conversation that will further divide and further polarize us.”

Some Republicans also quickly criticized the conservative attacks on Harris on Tuesday. 

“I disagree with DEI, but she is the vice president of the United States. She is the former U.S. senator. These congressmen saying it, they are wrong in their own instincts,” former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., told NBC News Tuesday.

Asked for comment for this article, the Harris campaign pointed to comments from Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska. 

“Of course it’s not appropriate, for heaven’s sakes. What, are they just going to say if you’re not a white male, it’s a DEI candidate?” she told HuffPost on Tuesday. “I’m sorry. No.”