22-7-2024 (WASHINGTON) In a bold declaration, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump expressed confidence on Sunday that he would find it easier to defeat Vice President Kamala Harris in November’s election than he would have against the outgoing Democratic President Joe Biden.
Trump’s remarks came shortly after Biden’s stunning announcement that he was stepping aside as his party’s candidate, paving the way for Harris to take on the mantle as the Democrats’ new standard-bearer. “Harris will be easier to beat than Joe Biden would have been,” Trump told CNN in an interview.
The Trump campaign and the former president himself wasted no time in launching attacks on both Biden and Harris across social media platforms, questioning Biden’s fitness to continue serving as president.
Biden’s decision to end his re-election campaign came amid growing concerns among fellow Democrats about his mental acuity and ability to mount a formidable challenge against Trump. His endorsement of Harris as the party’s replacement candidate followed a weak and faltering performance in a televised debate against Trump late last month, which had further fueled doubts about his re-election prospects.
On his Truth Social platform, Trump minced no words, stating, “Biden was not fit to run for President, and is certainly not fit to serve.” Top Republicans, including House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson, echoed similar sentiments, questioning Biden’s fitness to serve as president and explicitly calling for his resignation.
Trump further expressed optimism about reversing the “damage” caused by Biden’s presidency, asserting, “We will suffer greatly because of his (Biden’s) presidency, but we will remedy the damage he has done very quickly.”
While Trump and Biden had been mostly tied in polls, some recent surveys showed the former president narrowly ahead of the incumbent following the debates, setting the stage for a dramatic shift in the political landscape.
According to a source with direct knowledge of the matter, the Trump campaign had already begun discussions on how to redeploy campaign resources in the event of Biden’s withdrawal, given that any alternative Democratic candidate would likely present different strengths and weaknesses, necessitating a reevaluation of advertising strategies and resource allocation.
Publicly, Trump campaign advisers and allies have expressed confidence in their ability to tie Harris to Biden’s record on issues such as immigration and inflation, portraying her and any other potential Democratic candidates as being to the left of Biden on various policies.
In a statement released after Biden’s announcement, the Trump campaign labeled Harris as “Biden’s enabler-in-chief,” asserting that the two politicians “own each other’s records, and there is no distance between the two.”
The official Republican National Committee (RNC) YouTube channel swiftly published a two-minute video attacking Harris over immigration policies, alleging that she had neglected the issue.
In recent weeks, Trump’s campaign and some of his allies have launched pre-emptive political attacks on Harris, anticipating the possibility of her replacing Biden atop the Democratic ticket. Republicans have seized on Biden’s 2021 statement that Harris would lead efforts with Mexico and Central American nations to address illegal immigration, accusing her of failing to stem the flow of millions of migrants crossing illegally into the US, despite her not being directly responsible for securing the southern border.
