‘Just Plain Weird’: Harris Embraces a New Label for Trump

Outside a campaign fundraiser in Pittsfield, Mass., a supporter of Vice President Kamala Harris held up a simple white sign with crisp blue letters. It read: “Trump is Weird.”

Inside the packed theater, Harris made clear she was embracing the adjective for her Republican opponents, as the attacks against her ramp up a week into her campaign for President. Both former President Donald Trump and his running mate, Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio, are trying to define Harris, a former prosecutor, as soft on crime and illegal immigration. Vance has also suggested Harris, who is a stepmother, doesn’t understand the needs of biological parents, having described her in 2021 as one of the “childless cat ladies” who “want to make the rest of the country miserable too.”

“You may have noticed, Donald Trump has been resorting to some wild lies about my record,” Harris told the enthusiastic crowd at the Berkshires fundraiser. “And some of what he and his running mate are saying, well, it's just plain weird. I mean that's the box you put that in.”

Harris and her campaign are working to quickly redefine the race, partly by bringing more attention to the idiosyncrasies of Trump’s speeches and interviews, which veer from nationalist fervor, to odd anecdotes about sharks and Hannibal Lecter. After a Fox News appearance this week, Harris’ campaign released a press release that included the rhetorical questions, “Is Donald Trump ok?” and “Trump is old and quite weird?”

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On Friday, Harris' campaign wrote "JD Vance is weird and creepy," on X, formerly known as Twitter, along with a press release highlighting Vance's past statements favoring laws to restrict abortion access.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who is said to be on Harris’ shortlist of potential running mates, was early in deploying “weird” as an attack on Trump and Vance. “These guys are just weird,” he said on MSNBC on Tuesday. “They’re running for He-Man women-haters’ club or something. That’s what they go at. That’s not what people are interested in.”

Harris is also now trying to paint Trump as running scared from a debate with her. Trump this week backed out of a planned Sept. 10 debate that had been originally scheduled against President Joe Biden, before Biden dropped out and endorsed Harris. 

"You may have seen he just pulled out of our debate,” Harris said Saturday at the fundraiser, where she was introduced by musician James Taylor. “I hope he reconsiders because we have a lot to talk about.”