(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Why Harris Will Beat Trump When Hillary Couldn't [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2024-07-23 There’ve been some worries expressed around here that Harris will not be able to beat Trump any more than Hillary could. I think that’s wrong for a number of reasons, but let me start with the WaPo column this morning by Monica Hesse that got me thinking about this: Kamala Harris said 19 words in 2018 that taught us all we need to know. This goes back to when Harris, then on the Senate Judiciary Committee, was pressing Kavanaugh to state his position of women’s reproductive rights. Kavanaugh was weaseling and wriggling, and finally Harris, good prosecutor that she is, said this: Hesse then goes to say what every woman watching that knew and what every man ought to know (but too many don’t, or forget): Laws related to reproductive health care only impact female bodies. Overturning Roe v. Wade would primarily hurt women. The health and personal choices of women were monitored, restricted and regulated by the government in ways that men could not begin to imagine — in a way that Kavanaugh himself had clearly not begun to imagine, considering how long it took him to grasp Harris’s question. And if he would not articulate a position, then she would at least make him articulate the injustice. So there’s two points here. First is that Harris made it clear — years before Dobbs — what the stakes are for women in this country. Second is that she made Kavanaugh squirm. So that’s the first part of what makes Harris different from Hillary. She is an experienced prosecutor who knows how to pin a witness down. (It didn’t do any good with Kavanaugh because the fix was in.) Now imagine doing that to Trump. We don’t have to imagine Hillary doing it to Trump, because she didn’t when she had the chance. I still remember that moment in the town hall in 2016 when Trump was stalking her, and she tried to ignore him. (She said afterwards that it made her feel “really weird.”) Hillary has been throughout her career a tremendous advocate for women’s rights and women’s equality, but I felt, watching that moment, that she was still influenced the way too many women of her generation were — trained to ignore men when they make you feel uncomfortable. Harris is having none of that. Second, Harris has the benefit of Hillary’s experiences with Trump; she will take lessons from it and do better. On that note, we have all had much more experience with Trump and the way he treats women, so on both counts Harris is much more forewarned and has more material to work with than Hillary did. Next point is related. When Trump and Hillary were running in 2016, Roe was the law of the land. Dobbs changed that, and Trump is responsible (though he boasts about it or tries to downplay it depending on, I don’t know, what he had for breakfast that morning). So there is a third point to that Kavanaugh hearing: Harris knew he was a threat, all but accused him of being a threat, and through her questions warned us all that he was a threat. She brings that history with her in her challenge to Trump: You, O Demented Rapist Fat Orange Felon, you put that man — and Gorsuch and Barrett — on the bench where they did irreparable damage to women’s rights. Many women have already died or been rendered sterile because of you. She will make him squirm like she did to Kavanaugh. OK, here’s more. Trump has a problem with women. When he was running against Hillary, he tried to tone his misogyny down just a little bit, but he still slipped a lot. Harris is a triple threat: She is a woman, and she is also Black (and other non-White), and she was a prosecutor. Trump hates prosecutors. Harris is his triple nightmare. He will be unable to keep himself from saying all kinds of hateful things that may appeal to his base but will turn off that part of the country that (for some ridiculous reason) seems not to have up its mind about him. Trump’s New Rival May Bring Out His Harshest Instincts The prosecutor-versus-felon approach may appeal to undecided voters who had been sour on both Mr. Trump and President Biden. It may also goad Mr. Trump, who reacts strongly to criticism, into resurrecting the language he has used against other Black female prosecutors, such as Letitia James in New York and Fani Willis in Georgia, both of whom he has called “racist” and attacked in personal terms. . . . “I think there’s a real chance that he overplays his hand on the attacks on her,” said Lauren Leader, the founder of All In Together, and an advocate for advancing women in business and politics. “I don’t think it’s strategic for him, I think it’s automatic.” Ultimately, Trump’s misogyny didn’t cost him the election in 2016. But, again, that was before Dobbs. Unlike Hillary, Harris is running in a post-Roe world, and she has already shown she knows how to make the most of it. 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