US V-P Kamala Harris sharpens her attacks on Trump

DALLAS – US Vice-President Kamala Harris stepped up her attacks on former president Donald Trump on July 10, as she said in Dallas that Trump would round up his political enemies, deport peaceful protesters and terminate the Constitution in a second term.

“Consider: Donald Trump has openly vowed, if re-elected, he’ll be a dictator on day one, that he will weaponise the Department of Justice against his political enemies, round up peaceful protesters and throw them out of our country and even... I quote, ‘terminate’ the United States Constitution,” Ms Harris said.

Ms Harris has been harshly critical of Trump in the past, but at campaign events in the past two days, as an increasing number of Democrats question whether US President Joe Biden has the ability to beat Trump in November and the acuity to serve another four years, she has been far more explicit about the dangers she sees in a Trump second term. Ms Harris has emerged as a top replacement for Mr Biden at the top of the Democratic ticket should he drop out of the race.

In Dallas, Ms Harris tried to attach Trump to Project 2025, a policy and staffing blueprint assembled by dozens of conservative groups for the next Republican administration. Among the platform proposals include replacing many federal civil servant jobs with political appointees who would be loyal to the president.

Ms Harris accused Trump of adopting the project, which would shrink the Department of Education and cut programmes like Head Start, the federal programme for preschool children from low-income families.

“Let us be clear, this represents an outright attack on our children, our families and our future,” Ms Harris told roughly 20,000 people at an event for Alpha Kappa Alpha, a historically black sorority of which Ms Harris is a member.

Project 2025,

which is led by the conservative Heritage Foundation, is not Trump’s official campaign platform, and the former president has recently sought to distance himself from it. But the plans were developed by some of Trump’s former advisers who are likely to be involved in a potential second term, and many of the policies in Project 2025 mirror Trump’s official platform, Agenda 47.

In a statement, Ms Danielle Alvarez, a spokeswoman for the Trump campaign, accused “Team Biden” of “fear-mongering because they have nothing else to offer the American people”.

With Mr Biden mired in controversy after his disastrous debate performance two weeks ago, Trump has increasingly taken aim at Ms Harris. Trump has dubbed her “Laffin’ Kamala Harris” and intentionally mispronounces her name at campaign events. Ms Harris’ recent sharp rebukes of Trump come to the relief of many Democrats who felt she was too cautious and scripted when she first came to the White House.

But while political momentum is building for Ms Harris, she is also navigating a difficult balancing act in not spotlighting the messaging limitations of her boss.

On July 10 in Dallas, the crowd gasped when Ms Harris first mentioned Trump’s name about midway through her speech. She noted that he had appointed three justices to the Supreme Court who joined the majority in overturning Roe v Wade.

Ms Sonia Southerland, a 69-year-old member of the sorority, said she was struck by how Ms Harris explained the stakes of the election, specifically his potential plans for a second term.

“We can take that message back to our communities,” Ms Southerland said, “back to our families, back to our big and little girls, and help them to understand what is happening in this country at this moment.” NYTIMES