(New York Post) Vice President Kamala Harris is furiously trying to “distance” herself from President Biden’s record — while also disavowing the far-left policies she heartily embraced just a few years ago.
The result is a campaign run entirely on style over substance since Harris took the Democratic mantle from Biden last month.
And Democratic campaign operatives warn that she risks voters catching on — and realizing she’s selling only cynical political opportunism.
“It’s a marketing strategy that is TV-esque,” one senior Democratic aide said. “With such a short timeline now, policy matters less than personality.
One Democratic operative told The Post Wednesday that Harris was wisely breaking with Biden due to his “horrible” polling numbers. Getty Images
“She’s going to almost exclusively look at a voter like a consumer — and sell, sell, sell!” the aide quipped.
“Do I think that’s a long-term strategy? No,” the aide admitted. “But I think the plan is win and figure it out.”
Another Democratic campaign operative told The Post Wednesday that Harris was wisely trying to break with Biden’s economic policies due to his “horrible” polling numbers — and is prepared to jettison any of their administration’s talking points that don’t have “strong” public support.
At the same time, Harris, 59, is also seemingly rejecting a host of her own progressive pet projects that she touted during her failed 2020 presidential bid — including support for Medicare for All, banning fracking and legalizing illegal immigration.
Critics attacked Harris from both sides of the party four years ago — with the Biden campaign mocking her Medicare flip-flop in particular as a “have-it-every-which-way” plan, and aides for Democratic socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) slamming her policy stances as having been “cobbled together to address various poll numbers,” Politico reported.
“As far as Harris distancing from Biden, she was going to do that,” the campaign operative said, noting that Democrats have been energized by the opportunity to redefine the 2024 race. Bloomberg via Getty Images
Now, she’s trying to burnish her moderate credentials by talking about inflation and the high cost of goods head on, while also embracing Trump’s pledge to not tax tips for service and hospitality workers in key battleground states like Nevada.
“As far as Harris distancing from Biden, she was going to do that,” the campaign operative said, noting that Democrats have been energized by the opportunity to redefine the 2024 race.
“It wasn’t called Harrisflation,” the operative added, referencing the “Bidenflation” moniker that Republicans have branded on the 81-year-old president as the US surged in 2022 to a 40-year high in consumer prices.
Meanwhile the hits she’s taken for being aloof on policy and dodging major media interviews for almost a month after Biden’s departure has been strategic on her part, the senior Democratic aide said, giving her a chance to “to get her story straight later.”
Harris advisers spilled to Axios on Wednesday that the presidential pick, who was elevated to presumtive nominee solely by winning over party bosses, isn’t afraid to lean into the policy reversals.
“It’s no different than [Gov.] Kathy Hochul’s about-face on congestion pricing,” Rockland County Republican Rep. Mike Lawler told The Post, ripping Harris as a “fraud.”
