2024 Presidential Election Thread - Let's keep the party going.

[Bullneck 18892]

2 hours ago, mdmost said:

Trying to sue your way back into the White House doesn't work if you get your ass blown out in most of the states. He's also slipping in the polls so he can't pull his bullshit of how "I was winning in the polls, how could I be losing at the ballot box without rigged elections". Kamala and Walz need to bring the pain so he'll drop out like the craven cunt he is. He doesn't want to suffer the indignity of a black....err Indian woman kicking his ass. I think he's so upset that getting shot at didn't hand him the White House. He really thought he was destined to win after that. Then people remembered just how much of a piece of shit he really is. 

Trump really needs that judge in New York to put him in jail in early September. That's his only remaining play to both save face, drop out, or get some sympathy points. 

Bullneck fantasy fiction/ Trump will get on Trump Force 1 with a full tank of gas and head to Venezuela, then Hungary, and then finally to the mother ship in Russia. /Bullneck fantasy fiction

[Gil Bang 25822]

BTW, this ain't the couch fucker's first go-round attacking somebody's service record.  

Here, he attacks a guy that nearly lost his arm in 'Nam (and saw his buddies die face down in the mud) and then led the invasion of Iraq.

 

 

[BurntOrange&White 39181]

52 minutes ago, Pancho said:

Twitter lightly buzzing about theil and Elmo getting trunp to drop out because they want Vance to replace him. Also that the trunp fam is about to run the biggest crypto scam on their cult members after don’s tweet today. 

A crypto scam explains his recent Aidin Ross stuff as Aidin is well renowned for his sponsorships from crypto gambling sites

[NorthLoop 14028]

I'll add to this conversation about war combat. My dad was drafted out of UT law school in '70 to go to Vietnam. Since he had a degree, he was given a desk job in Saigon. Didn't see action on the front lines, but his entire hotel was blown to bits by a VC kid on a bicycle. My dad was down the street when it happened but lost a handful of friends. Later he would get a nasty intestinal bug and had to be med flighted back to the states. He always said he would never complain about that being that the guys on that plane with him were in way worse shape than him. He was always shy about talking about his tour and never wanted people to think of him as a vet since he wasn't in the jungle getting shot at, but he still fucking served and did his duty, and almost died for it. JV Vance can lick my dad's taint. 

[NorthLoop 14028]

5 minutes ago, NorthLoop said:

I'll add to this conversation about war combat. My dad was drafted out of UT law school in '70 to go to Vietnam. Since he had a degree, he was given a desk job in Saigon. Didn't see action on the front lines, but his entire hotel was blown to bits by a VC kid on a bicycle. My dad was down the street when it happened but lost a handful of friends. Later he would get a nasty intestinal bug and had to be med flighted back to the states. He always said he would never complain about that being that the guys on that plane with him were in way worse shape than him. He was always shy about talking about his tour and never wanted people to think of him as a vet since he wasn't in the jungle getting shot at, but he still fucking served and did his duty, and almost died for it. JV Vance can lick my dad's taint. 

I should add that my dad has been a yellow dog Texas democrat his whole adult life. He owns more guns than 99% of these losers and grew up running cattle in Jack County. When the AR shit got popular and the gun nuts tried to argue that they were great for hog killing, my dad told me "if you can't kill a hog with a deer rifle, then you have no business owning land in Texas." 

[Thatguy 8283]

4 hours ago, Pancho said:

That was her Black side as my momma used that tone many time on a young Pancho 

 

 

Man, tell me about it. It got quiet at my house when she said that. My daughter even stopped talking. My mom has since passed but I keep a stern looking pic of her just to make sure I am good on the daily. Nothing motivates you midweek better than looking up and seeing a pic of your mom with the same look on her face she had when you were a kid and didn't have the dishes done when she got home.

[tx 3 putt 75850]

[MissingInAction 24694]

6 hours ago, Disco Strangler said:

Imagine fuckery screws Harris.
 

Biden resigns as a lame duck.  

President Harris leans into SCOTUS opinion and undoes the fuckery and puts them all in prison.  

Profit.  

Why do you like to make me touch myself?

[tx 3 putt 75850]

Low Energy ….

 

[RPM 26148]

On 8/5/2024 at 7:47 PM, HenryJames said:

[SydneyCarton 47808]

6 hours ago, Chuckie Finster said:

Also, she FUCKING MET WITH THEM before the rally and they still protested.  Goddamn morons.

 

5 hours ago, Pancho said:

So they got to meet with Harris yet interrupted the rally anyway?

 

The Harris campaign got Chainsaw’d. they should get used to it. 

[Js1 84935]

 

[HornOnTheBayou 8863]

7 hours ago, WelfareBuysMyWeed said:

100000000% not: https://highschool.utexas.edu/instructor/gwendolyn-cash

That's actually why I felt so comfortable walking into her class with a ball cap, I thought she'd be cool since I was all jazzed up about getting accepted into Texas, lol.

That's funny. I have actually worked with her on several projects for the College Board. She is an absolutely brilliant woman who I really admire and respect. She's also extremely kind and professional. But, yep, I can imagine what happens when she gets angry, and I would definitely not want to make her angry.

[Js1 84935]

2 hours ago, SydneyCarton said:

 

The Harris campaign got Chainsaw’d. they should get used to it. 

 

[HenryJames 65791]

[Longhorn94 2424]

6 hours ago, NorthLoop said:

I should add that my dad has been a yellow dog Texas democrat his whole adult life. He owns more guns than 99% of these losers and grew up running cattle in Jack County. When the AR shit got popular and the gun nuts tried to argue that they were great for hog killing, my dad told me "if you can't kill a hog with a deer rifle, then you have no business owning land in Texas." 

my dad was an aircraft mechanic in the Air Force. he was also a deputy sheriff where he was the range master. we own a ranch and he says the exact same thing. if you cant take a hog down with a deer rifle, you are the last person I want to have an AR-15. we don't own any ARs but we have a shit load of rifles, shotguns, and pistols.

and I really think these are the real Texans. we are a state that cares for our neighbors, practice gun safety, and takes a common sense approach to just about everything. I have no idea how the others fell so far into the MAGA fantasy. I blame it on Aggy. We need to reclaim our state. 

I think Kamala is looking at a 2008 Obama electoral map. LFG!!!!

[Js1 84935]

6 minutes ago, Longhorn94 said:

we are a state that cares for our neighbors, practice gun safety, and takes a common sense approach to just about everything.

We were that state.

We romanticize the King of the Hill era Texas, where conservative guys like Hank love guns and God but are kind to their neighbors, love their community and can respect the opposite side, like Ann Richards, or individuals who are different than them.

That Texas is long gone when we surrendered the state to Abbott and Patrick and Paxton. Oh how far we are from the days of Perry and Dewhurst 

[Longhorn94 2424]

3 minutes ago, Js1 said:

We were that state.

We romanticize the King of the Hill era Texas, where conservative guys like Hank love guns and God but are kind to their neighbors, love their community and can respect the opposite side, like Ann Richards, or individuals who are different than them.

That Texas is long gone when we surrendered the state to Abbott and Patrick and Paxton. Oh how far we are from the days of Perry and Dewhurst 

Fuck that. We still are that state. Those people are all still here. I feel like we are similar to Iran - a great people ruled by an angry extremist minority. Speaking of - Abbott, Patrick, Paxton and their followers are the frauds. Once Trump is gone, they will go back to the norm because they have no moral compass of their own. How the hell did Abbott lose his way so bad that it makes us long for Rick Fucking Perry? Fuck Abbott. I cant stand that guy. 

Edited August 8 by Longhorn94

[cactusflinthead 27586]

 

[randomhorn 1552]

7 minutes ago, Longhorn94 said:

How the hell did Abbott lose his way so bad that it makes us long for Rick Fucking Perry? Fuck Abbott. I cant stand that guy. 

What makes you think Abbott lost his way? This is who he chooses to be

[Js1 84935]

50 minutes ago, HenryJames said:

This is July 24-August 1.  MU Law is an A+ pollster

52-48 Harris (RV)
53-47 (LV)
47-41-9 (RV)
50-42-6 (LV)

GCB: 52-48 D

47-43 Trump (RV) if Biden stayed in the race

Harris 47-50 favorable
Trump 45-53
Vance 29-45 (lol at the idea Thiel wants to replace Trump with Vance on the ticket - please do!) 

Edited August 8 by Js1

[MissingInAction 24694]

Edit for dumbfuckery

Edited August 8 by MissingInAction
Stupid

[Aqua Buddha 14450]

4 hours ago, tx 3 putt said:

Low Energy ….

 

That and we can't watch the Olympics without being blasted by Harris ads.  Nothing for Trump.

The media needs to start asking where the money went.

[Bateshorn 9853]

6 hours ago, NorthLoop said:

I should add that my dad has been a yellow dog Texas democrat his whole adult life. He owns more guns than 99% of these losers and grew up running cattle in Jack County. When the AR shit got popular and the gun nuts tried to argue that they were great for hog killing, my dad told me "if you can't kill a hog with a deer rifle, then you have no business owning land in Texas." 

Reminds me of my grandfather, who grew up poor as fuck in central Texas, and had to hunt for food. He always said the only guns a man needs are a .30-06 and a 20 gauge. He eventually became a .270 guy, but he maintained his convention that owning more than a couple of guns made you weird AF. 

[locodos 5322]

5 minutes ago, Bateshorn said:

Reminds me of my grandfather, who grew up poor as fuck in central Texas, and had to hunt for food. He always said the only guns a man needs are a .30-06 and a 20 gauge. He eventually became a .270 guy, but he maintained his convention that owning more than a couple of guns made you weird AF. 

My grandfather had a .22 and a 12 guage. 

[Captainant 27217]

11 minutes ago, Aqua Buddha said:

That and we can't watch the Olympics without being blasted by Harris ads.  Nothing for Trump.

The media needs to start asking where the money went.

Mfw you think the FEC is gonna do fuck all about his manifold election finance violations. They haven't been doing dick about trump for going on nearly a decade

[RPM 26148]

12 minutes ago, Aqua Buddha said:

That and we can't watch the Olympics without being blasted by Harris ads.  Nothing for Trump.

The media needs to start asking where the money went.

Have you tried watching YouTube the last couple of months? Every other ad is a Trump ad. I've sent too many block ad notices to keep count.

[South Austin 51921]

14 minutes ago, Aqua Buddha said:

The media needs to start asking where the money went.

[Js1 84935]

8 minutes ago, Captainant said:

Mfw you think the FEC is gonna do fuck all about his manifold election finance violations. They haven't been doing dick about trump for going on nearly a decade

Sure they will.  In about 2036, because the FEC takes forever.  They're still working on campaign finance complaints from 2016.

[Js1 84935]

Memerson has Montana 55-40 Trump.  Which is about a point worse for Trump than 2020 (57-41).   Which if you apply a general -1 trend to Trump nationwide, Arizona is Harris +1.5, Michigan is Harris +4, Nevada is Harris +3.3, NH is Harris +7 (hey like some polls we've seen), Wisconsin is Harris +2.4, Pennsylvania is Harris +2.8, Georgia is Harris +1.3 and North Carolina is Trump +0.3

Tester is down 46-48.  Damn is he strong AF that he is down 2 while Harris is down 15.  And it's Emerson, which is unreliable. 

Edited August 8 by Js1

[Snake Diggity 4607]

10 hours ago, Pancho said:

Ineffective.  The people who need to understand that don’t know what the word “denigrating” means.

[Js1 84935]

9 hours ago, Pancho said:

Twitter lightly buzzing about theil and Elmo getting trunp to drop out because they want Vance to replace him. Also that the trunp fam is about to run the biggest crypto scam on their cult members after don’s tweet today. 

PLEASE DO

Vance is more unpopular than Trump, without the cult following.  They cult will think Vance shanked Trump and won't show up in November. DEEP STATE. 

Can't imagine a weirder, but more appropriate thing, for 2024 than Trump dropping out in August.  But he won't. 

[BurntOrange&White 39181]

What do yall expect from a party who attacked Senator McCain for being a POW.

23 minutes ago, RPM said:

Have you tried watching YouTube the last couple of months? Every other ad is a Trump ad. I've sent too many block ad notices to keep count.

YT ads work like regular ads on the interwebz.

[Gatorubet 29915]

39 minutes ago, Aqua Buddha said:

That and we can't watch the Olympics without being blasted by Harris ads.  Nothing for Trump.

The media needs to start asking where the money went.

That money went for the army of GOP field offices across the country. You know - the money that his daughter-in-law got at the RNC…

[Francisco 2.0 32289]

Gee, what a shame

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/08/07/trump-election-campaign/

Trump complains about campaign as advisers try to focus on attacking Harris

 

Quote

Donald Trump’s candidacy appeared all but destined for victory only weeks ago.

He rose defiant from the bullet graze of an attempted assassination, hoisting his fist in the air with a unified party at his back, a growing lead in the polls, dissolving criminal prosecutions — and a struggling opponent, President Joe Biden, facing a full-blown revolt from within his own party. Trump mocked the idea of Vice President Kamala Harris becoming the new Democratic nominee, calling her “so pathetic.”

 

Quote

As staffers and allies gathered at the GOP nominating convention in Milwaukee last month, some privately discussed what administration jobs certain people wanted — and predicted a landslide election. There was talk of spending money in states where Republicans haven’t won in decades.

“At the convention, it was game over, and the Democrats realized that,” said Richard Porter, a member of the Republican National Committee from Illinois. “It felt like it was too good to be true, and it was. It’s amazing how quickly they coalesced behind another candidate.”

 

Quote

Trump now finds himself back in a dead-even contest and with new signs of strain in his orbit. In the face of new Democratic momentum, he has grown increasingly upset about Harris’s surging poll numbers and media coverage since replacing Biden on the ticket, complaining relentlessly and asking friends about how his campaign is performing, according to five people close to the campaign who like some others spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.

“It’s unfair that I beat him and now I have to beat her, too,” Trump told an ally in a phone call last weekend.

 

Spoiler

Allies have taken to finger-pointing over several events that seemingly went off the rails. Friends, Mar-a-Lago members and donors have logged their concerns with Trump, who then tells them to others, according to three people close to him. U.S. Senate allies and others are trying to get Trump focused on attacking Harris.

“We had a lot of good things happen in a row that were unsustainable, but we’ve hit a few speed bumps,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a Trump ally, said in an interview. “There’s been a rough spot.”

The Trump campaign, for its part, remains confident that he will win decisively in November, with aides saying they never took the advantages in July for granted or let their guard down. The former president remains ahead or tied in most of the swing states and continues to attract large crowds, with the cash on hand in total not far from the Democratic operation.

“The Trump campaign has never taken anything for granted and we always fight like we’re the underdogs,” Steven Cheung, a Trump spokesman, said in a statement. “That’s especially true after an assassination attempt on President Trump heading into Convention. Our sole job is to help President Trump win the election, and we’re going to beat the brakes off the dangerously liberal Kamala-Walz ticket.”

But for the first time since Trump established his dominance in the Republican nomination fight, his campaign has found itself publicly struggling to manage the daily news cycle as excitement around Harris has swelled along with her campaign activity. It has left people close to the campaign wondering why Trump and his team seemed ill-prepared, given that they had privately speculated for weeks after Biden’s disastrous June 27 debate performance that Harris was going to be the nominee.

“What’s happened in the last couple of weeks is we actually have a real race. This is a real presidential campaign. The Biden-Trump version of this was one event a week by each candidate, very rarely on the campaign trail and no real engagement,” said Kevin Madden, a Republican strategist who worked for Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential effort. “Now this is going to be one of those campaigns where strategies matter, resources matter, time matters, and there is not much room for error.”

People familiar with the campaign’s inner workings say there is no staff freakout — nor have there been dramatic fights between senior advisers in recent days, a hallmark of previous Trump campaigns where things went awry. Staff have been meeting to discuss polls, spending and upcoming events at the campaign’s headquarters.

Cheung dismissed the allies and Trump advisers questioning the campaign’s effectiveness as “unnamed sources who have no idea what they are talking about and are doing nothing but helping Democrats.”

“We have always thrived under pressure because we take our cues from President Trump,” he said. “With his leadership, we continue to prove everyone wrong. Anyone on the outside who continues to complain simply hasn’t been battle-tested or gone through the adversity we have and come out on top.”

But there is no doubt that some of his big advantages have faded.

The fundraising edge Trump enjoyed for two months was swallowed by Harris’s $310 million fundraising surge in July — about $170 million more than he announced for the same month. The much-larger Harris campaign now appears poised to take advantage of a new outpouring of grassroots energy, including more than 1.3 million voters who have signed up for campaign events since she entered the race for president, according to her campaign.

Despite going up with his first television spots of the general election, Trump and his allies are still being outspent in the battleground states. Over the first five days of August, Trump and his allies spent about $16.5 million on advertising, according to AdImpact, compared with about $23 million by Biden, Harris and their allies. From the beginning of March to early August, the Biden side has spent $309 million, compared with $110 million for the Trump side, according to the ad-tracking firm.

While Trump has repeatedly said Republican Party officials only needed to focus on election integrity, he has begun hearing from outside allies that he does not have a significant ground game in key battleground states. He has grown annoyed with some of the media focus on his campaign staff, suggesting to others that his advisers get too much credit. Some advisers have urged him to spend more on digital advertising, saying he is being pummeled online.

Democrats and some in Trump’s orbit have tried to highlight social media posts from Trump advisers and allies that they say show fear or bad messaging, while trying to stoke division in other ways. The Harris campaign has circulated posts and news releases about his staff, the pick of Sen. JD Vance (Ohio) as his running mate, crowd size and other topics they say will grate on Trump and cause him to say controversial things.

“It’s easy to live in Donald Trump’s head,” one Harris aide wrote, suggesting a story about crowd size now that Harris draws a crowd as big or larger than Trump’s rallies.

Harris, meanwhile, has been traveling more on the campaign trail than Trump, who is fundraising this week in Florida. Since the June 27 debate, Trump has held eight campaign rallies, besides his nominating convention, including events in Minnesota, Florida and Virginia, all outside the main battleground map.

Harris will visit six states this week. Beyond interviews, the only event Trump has scheduled is a rally in Montana, a state where he is almost certain to win by double digits. Democrats wonder about the state of Trump’s operation, while the former president’s advisers note that he has campaigned for 21 months.

“Of all weeks when he has to blunt the momentum of Kamala Harris, you would have expected him to be very aggressive this week,” said Simon Rosenberg, a Democratic strategist.

Trump has begun asking friends and allies how his campaign staff is doing — a question that some say could lead to staff changes, though the former president has not said he is planning that and has expressed support for campaign aides in recent days, a person close to him said. He has asked why Harris is raising so much more money than him, people familiar with the comments say. Trump has also repeatedly raised the large crowds that Harris is getting compared with Biden, people who have spoken to him said.

Some Trump advisers grew alarmed last week when Kellyanne Conway arrived at his Bedminster, N.J., golf resort for a meeting and posted about it on X. Conway, who was the manager of his winning campaign in 2016, has a long relationship with Trump and has questioned some of the campaign’s decisions but has not specified any personnel changes she thinks Trump should make, according to people who have spoken to her.

“The Kamala bump was a direct cause from the Biden slump,” Conway said in an interview. “There was nowhere for his successor to go but up in fundraising and enthusiasm. But this remains President Trump’s election to lose. The electoral map and underlying fundamentals favor him.”

While accepting the Republican nomination at the convention, in his first speech since the shooting, advisers wanted him to give a sober and hopeful address about the future. He began by telling an emotional tale of his shooting but wandered off the teleprompter remarks dozens of times, stretching the speech “past the point where it was productive,” a campaign official said. Inside the arena, loyal attendees could be heard grumbling as they exited about how long the speech was. Several people close to Trump described it as a missed opportunity.

Inside his campaign, there have been frustrations about some of his other comments, people close to Trump say. When he went to a National Association of Black Journalists event in Chicago, he made unplanned remarks that suggested Harris was not really Black.

“I didn’t know she was Black until a number of years ago when she happened to turn Black and now she wants to be known as Black. So, I don’t know, is she Indian or is she Black?” Trump said falsely.

While the campaign sought to defend his comments, Trump was frustrated by the event. He did not know that Harris was not going to appear, that the journalists were going to ask such tough questions and that there would be a fact-checking component to the event, one person who spoke with him about it said.

His team has sought to attack her on policy grounds while casting her as unfit. It has pushed arguments about rising numbers of undocumented immigrants crossing the southern border, inflation that rose while she was vice president, her record as a California politician and her comments backing certain liberal positions in the past, such as supporting the Green New Deal.

At his rally in Atlanta this weekend, Trump veered way off-script to attack Brian Kemp, a popular Georgia governor who would not seek to overturn the 2020 election for him. He spent a large portion of his comments slashing Kemp, who previously had considered appearing with the former president this fall. In the days after, Kemp’s team have not heard from Trump’s campaign, even as some outside advisers have sought a détente.

Erick Erickson, a conservative Georgia radio show host, said he was flooded with calls from suburban voters who were angry with Trump’s attacks on Kemp. Erickson said he still believed Trump will probably win Georgia.

“All attacking Kemp does is remind people why they didn’t like him,” he said. “He makes it closer than it should be. That’s the problem. You’re not going to have Kemp on the campaign trail for him, which you could have had.”

Cheung, the Trump spokesman, dismissed concerns expressed by allies about the campaign and its messaging. “Our message discipline is second to none,” he said. “It’s why President Trump was able to take out Joe Biden in the debate, it’s why we’ve been so successful thus far, and it’ll be why President Trump will win the election.”

Several people close to the campaign said there was an ongoing effort to get Trump to focus on attacking Harris and slashing Democrats. Trump enjoyed an advantage of two percentage points over Biden in a Washington Post average of national polls taken in July, before the president bowed out. Harris is polling four percentage points ahead of Biden’s number in a Post average of national polls since then, giving her a one-point edge over Trump.

“This is really Trump’s race to lose,” Graham said. “I hope we’ll get more focused on prosecuting the case against her. I think he was frustrated originally, but over the last couple days, we’ve had good conversations and I think we have the wind at our back.”

A Tuesday afternoon post from Trump on his Truth Social media site — which included a number of nicknames, falsehoods and baseless accusations — suggested he was still steaming.

“What are the chances that Crooked Joe Biden, the WORST President in the history of the U.S., whose Presidency was Unconstitutionally STOLEN from him by Kamabla, Barrack HUSSEIN Obama, Crazy Nancy Pelosi, Shifty Adam Schiff, Cryin’ Chuck Schumer, and others on the Lunatic Left, CRASHES the Democrat National Convention and tries to take back the Nomination, beginning with challenging me to another DEBATE,” the post read. “He feels that he made a historically tragic mistake by handing over the U.S. Presidency, a COUP, to the people in the World he most hates, and he wants it back, NOW!!!”

 

 

[BehoId, The Underminer! 11667]

12 minutes ago, Snake Diggity said:

Ineffective.  The people who need to understand that don’t know what the word “denigrating” means.

It's also whataboutism.  Just say, "He served.  He served honorably.  When he was done, he moved on to serving his country in other ways.  These are the attacks of people that look for ways to insult the military."

Pairs with the 'weird' thing.

[Gatorubet 29915]

9 hours ago, Pancho said:

Twitter lightly buzzing about theil and Elmo getting trunp to drop out because they want Vance to replace him. Also that the trunp fam is about to run the biggest crypto scam on their cult members after don’s tweet today. 

Kind of like the comment about watching Coach Dale Brown across the basketball court and knowing that even if you’re behind by 30, you got a shot!  Elmo venturing in politics is just like that.  

So while Trump will never back out, he might get a war with Elmo if both narcissists are in the same room together long enough. 

[Js1 84935]

1 minute ago, Francisco 2.0 said:

Quote

“It’s unfair that I beat him and now I have to beat her, too,” Trump told an ally in a phone call last weekend.

 

Dog caught the car and doesn't know what to do.  You spent a month saying Biden was too old to be in the race. 

Also you never beat him, Biden retires with a 1-0 record against you, fat ass. 

[Pancho 44004]

All I’m saying is Scott Jennings has been super sad all week on CNN compared to 3 weeks ago…

 

[Gatorubet 29915]

35 minutes ago, RPM said:

Have you tried watching YouTube the last couple of months?

 

[Red Five 40571]

That's like complaining that the team you were beating by 10 at halftime switched QBs and is now up three at the end of the third quarter. "It's so unfair!"

[Francisco 2.0 32289]

Gee, what a shame Part 2

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/how-harris-surge-scrambled-trumps-battle-plan-2024-08-08/

How the Harris surge scrambled Trump's battle plan

Quote

A little over two weeks ago, Donald Trump's presidential campaign had visions of an expansive national strategy that would result in a landslide victory in November.

Now, as they struggle to blunt a surging Kamala Harris, who swiftly replaced President Joe Biden as the Democratic Party's presidential candidate last month, campaign advisers say they are recalibrating to protect states once thought of as safe and narrowing ambitions for the electoral map.

While top Trump advisers once saw a chance for an electoral blowout - with Democratic-leaning states like Minnesota and Virginia in play - the elevation of Harris has prompted Republicans to refocus on a narrower path to victory that runs through traditional battleground states like Pennsylvania and Georgia.

 

Quote

"The race has changed," Corey Lewandowski, a longtime adviser to the former president, told Reuters, though he said the race still favors Trump. "There's a lot of us that wanted to very actively run against Joe Biden. We felt very good about our race."

Publicly, Trump and his allies have tried vigorously to cast Harris, a Californian, as an out-of-touch liberal and link her to unpopular Biden policies on immigration and inflation. They say it matters little whether they are facing Biden or Harris.

Internally, nine sources told Reuters they see Harris as a far tougher opponent than Biden, who had been struggling for months in the face of doubts about his mental acuity and weakening poll numbers.

 

Quote

"It doesn't change the map as much as shrink it. Now there's no reason to talk about places like New Jersey anymore," said a member of the Trump campaign, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal campaign matters.

Reuters interviewed 12 campaign staff, advisers and donors who described a campaign that is grasping for a fresh strategy as it confronts a younger, more dynamic Democratic candidate who has energized the Democratic base and raised hundreds of millions of dollars in a matter of days.

 

Spoiler

"It's clear to everyone she could win," said one senior Trump adviser, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to more freely discuss internal deliberations.
When asked about the prospects of a shrinking battleground map, the Trump team said its strategy hadn't changed since Harris became the Democratic candidate.

"Team Trump has ads in every battleground state, we have expanded the political map to include traditional 'blue states' like Minnesota and Virginia with staff on the ground," Republican Party spokesperson Anna Kelly said.

Ammar Moussa, a Harris campaign spokesman, said Trump and Vance were taking the country backwards, while Harris was taking the country forwards. He did not address the electoral map.

The Trump sources Reuters spoke to pointed to three issues: delays in rolling out attack ads against Harris, which are seen as key for pointing out an opponent's perceived weaknesses; doubts among some Republican leaders and donors over the selection of Senator JD Vance as running mate; and concerns over Trump himself as he tramples over his advisers' efforts to define Harris based on her policy positions.

One source said the anti-Harris ads had been slow to air in part because the material had to be run by focus groups first.

The campaign also wanted to see who Harris would pick as her running mate, according to the source briefed on the plans.

Harris this week announced Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, a plain-speaking midwesterner, as her vice presidential candidate.

MAY MEMO
By late May, the Trump campaign had started gaming out the possibility that Harris or another Democrat could replace Biden at the top of the ticket, according to an internal memo from campaign staffer Austin McCubbin shared with senior advisers.

The 12-page memo, which was reviewed by Reuters, outlined the Democratic Party's rules for replacing a presidential candidate and possible scenarios, including Biden stepping down voluntarily and an "insider rebellion."

The memo did not detail how to respond to a Harris candidacy.

Tony Fabrizio, a Trump campaign pollster, predicted in a memo released to the press last month that Harris would enjoy a short-term polling boost, but that the race would then settle down. "Harris' 'honeymoon' will end and voters will refocus on her role as Biden's partner and co-pilot," he wrote in the memo.

In the lead-up to Biden's exit, the Trump-aligned MAGA Inc super PAC readied a TV ad accusing Harris of covering up Biden's infirmity. It began airing in four swing states on July 21, the day Biden announced that he was ending his reelection campaign.

At the same time, the campaign found itself on the defensive over Trump's selection of Vance as his running mate.

Vance has faced a wave of negative press over past comments referring to some Democrats, including Harris, as "a bunch of childless cat ladies," an insult seen as misogynistic and dismissive of people without children.

The Republican National Committee and the campaign have been fielding calls from some donors who fear Vance has become a distraction and is dragging the ticket down, according to two sources aware of the calls.

As the campaign focuses on a smaller map, Vance is expected to spend more time in relatively conservative and rural places, particularly in Rust Belt states, like Michigan and Pennsylvania, where his rural roots and concerns about industrial decay are more likely to resonate with voters, according to four sources close to the campaign or vice presidential candidate.

This week, Vance has held press conferences near Harris-Walz campaign events in Wisconsin and Michigan.

TRUMP ATTACKS HARRIS - AND HIS ALLIES
And then there is Trump's resort to name-calling instead of focusing on Harris' policy positions. Trump has cycled furiously through a series of personal insults against Harris. Those efforts have generated negative headlines - about Trump, rather than Harris.

At an event for the National Association of Black Journalists last week, Trump questioned whether Harris - whose mother was born in India and whose father was born in Jamaica - was actually Black. That left donors and aides baffled and alarmed, according to a Republican donor, an operative at a pro-Trump super PAC spending group, and a Trump-supporting union leader.

Three days later, Trump attacked Georgia's Republican governor, Brian Kemp, at a rally, possibly alienating a popular figure in a battleground state where Trump could need help mobilizing voters to the polls.

Trump has also been firing off multiple, convoluted missives on his Truth Social app, including one on Tuesday in which he mused about Biden returning to the top of the ticket.

In the spring and earlier this summer, as public opinion polls showed Trump expanding his lead over Biden in battleground states, the former president did events in what had been considered safe Democratic areas – Minnesota, Virginia, even New York City – in a bid to expand the electoral map.

By last Saturday, Trump was back to basics: campaigning in Georgia, where polls showed the race had tightened after Harris' entry.

The state is going to be fiercely competitive, with Trump clinging to a slight edge thanks to support from some Black voters, said Mark Rountree, a Georgia pollster who is not affiliated with either campaign.

And Trump is getting outspent on campaign ads in battleground states, according to AdImpact, a firm that tracks campaign ad spending.

Harris and affiliated committees have outspent Trump and his allies $112 million to $70.1 million on ads since July 22, according to AdImpact data, although Trump has matched Harris' outlays in Pennsylvania, perhaps the most crucial state for each side.

In terms of future reservations of TV air time, Harris and her allies are swamping Trump $172.4 million to $71.8 million as of this week, the firm said, although those figures are likely to change in the coming weeks.

Perhaps most telling was the Trump campaign's significant new ad buy in North Carolina, which had looked likely to remain Republican until Harris' ascension energized Black and young voters.

"They're putting money in there now in the hope she decides to leave it alone," said Justin Sayfie, a Republican lobbyist and Trump fundraiser.

However, the Harris campaign is already up on the air in the state.

 

[Bozo_Casanova 26122]

9 minutes ago, Red Five said:

That's like complaining that the team you were beating by 10 at halftime switched QBs and is now up three at the end of the third quarter. "It's so unfair!"

Remember when the Sand Aggys did that very thing when we pulled VY and Chance Mock led the comeback against Tech?  

[tx ind 6949]

13 minutes ago, Pancho said:

All I’m saying is Scott Jennings has been super sad all week on CNN compared to 3 weeks ago…

 

He’s not doing a good job of acting, he knows everything he is saying is BS

[The Dog 43654]

oh good lord:

[Js1 84935]

Marge is just itching to talk about Hunter’s cock some more 

[Aqua Buddha 14450]

8 minutes ago, The Dog said:

oh good lord:

For a milquetoast politician, Biden really did a number on these people.

[Underdog 28362]

9 hours ago, Bullneck said:

Bullneck fantasy fiction/ Trump will get on Trump Force 1 with a full tank of gas and head to Venezuela, then Hungary, and then finally to the mother ship in Russia. /Bullneck fantasy fiction

Post didn’t go in direction I was expecting. 

[Js1 84935]

RMG: Wisconsin Harris +3

[Js1 84935]

9 hours ago, Bullneck said:

Bullneck fantasy fiction/ Trump will get on Trump Force 1 with a full tank of gas and head to Venezuela, then Hungary, and then finally to the mother ship in Russia. /Bullneck fantasy fiction

Fighter pilot: sir, I’ve got a clear shot 

Biden: