As Donald Trump's campaign prepares to pour its $300 million war chest into defining Kamala Harris, its message will be simple: She's a dangerously liberal airhead.
While Harris has enjoyed flattering media coverage and a moderate polling bump since joining the race, Trump aides argue that her honeymoon is temporary and will fade as the public gets more exposure to her.
"The more she talks, the better," Trump campaign manager Chris LaCivita told reporters last week. "Biden's problem is walking; hers is talking."
So far, Harris seems to agree. In the three weeks since she became the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, she has yet to give a press conference or a sit-down interview. She has also turned down two scheduled debates with Trump, agreeing to just one face-to-face with him in September.
But Harris's press-avoidance strategy carries its own risks. The Trump campaign significantly underspent President Joe Biden on advertising this spring, and Trump is sitting on over $300 million that he will tap into to negatively brand Harris.
Trump advisers on Thursday played two attack-ad-style videos of Harris for reporters at a closed-door briefing, previewing their messaging strategy. The first was a supercut of Harris voicing far-left positions during her 2020 presidential campaign, such as supporting the Green New Deal, restricting public meat consumption, and confiscating guns.
The second video highlighted Harris's awkward off-the-cuff speaking style, in which she often veers into word salads and inappropriate laughter.
The Trump campaign's essential message: Harris is "failed, weak, and dangerously liberal."
The campaign said it will make the case that Harris owns Biden's failures, that she is a radical liberal ideologue, and that her policies have created chaos throughout her career, on issues from crime to the border crisis. Trump aides said their internal polling shows Trump leading Harris on economic issues, protecting the border, handling the Middle East conflict, and standing up to China and Russia.
Trump aides note that, in prior campaigns, Harris staked out controversial policy positions that could hurt her with centrist and swing-state voters. She once called for a fracking ban, a stance that is unpopular in Pennsylvania. She also backed the Green New Deal, a $10 trillion bill that seeks to eliminate the fossil fuel industry and provide universal health care and housing for all U.S. residents.
The Trump campaign is also betting that Harris will turn off voters when they see her in unfiltered and unscripted situations. Harris launched her first presidential campaign in 2019 to positive buzz, but the campaign lost momentum due to campaign mismanagement, fickleness on policy, and a lack of preparedness.
At the time, the New York Times reported that Harris's aides said she "struggles to carry a message beyond the initial script." In her first year as vice president, Harris's staffers complained that she "would refuse to wade into briefing materials prepared by staff members, then berate employees when she appeared unprepared," according to the Washington Post.
Harris often appears caught off-guard by media questions. When a reporter asked how she felt after American prisoners were returned from Russia earlier this month, Harris struggled to respond coherently.
"This is just an extraordinary testament to the importance of having a president who understands the power of diplomacy and understands the strength that rests in understanding the significance of diplomacy and strengthening alliances," Harris said.