BBC :
“They’re weird.”
With that simple diss – as well as an overall more streamlined message – Vice-President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign has shifted the conversation away from the weaknesses of her boss, President Joe Biden, and shone a spotlight on her opponent, Donald Trump.
The change of tone was on full display at rallies this week, where she appeared with her new vice-presidential pick, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz. With Beyonce’s Freedom as their soundtrack, the pair made the case that they were out to protect American freedoms while their “weird” Republican opponents, Trump and his running mate JD Vance, threatened to take them away.
“We’re not going back,” Ms Harris told an enthusiastic crowd in Philadelphia, leading a chorus of what has become the campaign’s de-facto slogan.
It is a stripped-back version of Mr Biden’s 2020 message – that Trump is a “threat to democracy” – that casts the former president as out of touch with American life.
Even the vice-president’s press releases, sent from a campaign that once served Mr Biden, have reflected the tone shift from deeply serious to something more light-touch.
Just five days after Mr Biden stepped aside, a Harris spokesperson quipped that a Trump speech made him sound “like someone you wouldn’t want to sit near at a restaurant”.
Campaign strategists say this new messaging appears to be cutting through with Democrat-leaning voters because it makes voting for Ms Harris sound more like a common-sense choice, and less like a civic chore. But it is too early to tell if this fresh goodwill for a vice-president who, until recently, struggled to grab the attention of American voters will last until November’s election day.
California Lieutenant Gov Eleni Kounalakis, a Democrat who considers the vice-president a close friend, said the campaign’s fresh rhetoric reflects Ms Harris’s “great sense of humour” and her ability to be “a good communicator on a very basic level”.
“The fact is, these things are proving to be her strengths, and her joyfulness is breaking through the dark, menacing undertones of Donald Trump and his running mate.”
Meanwhile, Trump, who has long been known as an effective mudslinger and energetic campaigner since he entered politics during the 2016 presidential campaign, has struggled to punch back – especially against the “weird” framing.