Kamala Harris’ speech at the Democratic Convention served two purposes: she introduced herself to the American people and she laid out the case she wants to make against Donald Trump.
Harris chose familiar targets: Trump’s attacks on democracy, his approach to taxes and his anti-abortion rights record. But in each, he took a slightly new tack.
Democrats (and pundits) have warned of Trump’s threat to democracy for years, but Harris ties it to a criticism of his character — that he’s fundamentally “for himself,” not for ordinary Americans.
Wonks raised the alarm over a Trump policy to impose a 10 percent tariff on all imports — but Harris rebranded the plan as a “Trump tax.”
Finally, Harris asked voters to trust that Trump would side with allies who are pushing anti-abortion policies — rather than believing what he says on the issue while campaigning.
1) Harris warns second-term Trump “not to be caught off guard.”
Harris tagged Trump as “an inconsiderate man,” but argued that the consequences of returning him to the White House were “extremely serious.” Part of it involves rehashing his attempt to steal the 2020 election (“He tried to throw away your vote”) and his criminal conviction (“For a completely different crime, he was convicted of fraud”).
But Harris argued that next time could be worse because a Supreme Court ruling last month gave presidents broad immunity from prosecution for the work they do as president. “Just imagine Donald Trump with no fences,” Harris said. “How will he use the enormous power of the President of the United States. Not to improve your life. Not to strengthen our national security. But to serve the only client he had: himself.”
It’s an important recognition that the problem with democracy is bigger than simply repeating that Trump is a convicted felon or that January 6 was bad. Indeed, Harris viewed Trump’s conviction as a small part of a larger argument that he is a fundamentally corrupt man, unfit for the presidency and out of touch with everyday Americans.
Later he was more blunt when discussing foreign policy. “Trump can’t hold dictators accountable,” he said, “because he wants to be a dictator.”
2) Harris characterizes Trump’s import tariff proposal as the “Trump Tax.”
On economic policy, Harris characterized Trump as fighting “for himself and his billionaire friends” rather than the middle class. “He’s going to give them another round of tax breaks that will add $5 trillion to the national debt,” Harris said. But he also zeroed in on Trump’s policies, which haven’t gotten enough attention yet.
One of Trump’s main campaign proposals for this year A 10 percent tariff on all foreign goods imported into the United States—a policy that has been much criticized as it may be high price For Americans purchasing such products. Yet Democrats haven’t really attacked Trump effectively on this issue, perhaps in part because the word “tariff” is boring and tunes people out.
So Harris chose a different word. “He wants to enact a national sales tax — call it the Trump tax — that would raise prices on middle-class families by about $4,000 a year,” he said. (Conversely, he said, he would support a middle-class tax cut “that would benefit more than 100 million Americans.”)
Typically, Republicans claim that their opponents are proposing tax increases that sound scary, and Democrats who struggle to defend themselves. But attacking a “Trump Tax” seems like a smart and potentially effective way to go after Trump’s tariff proposal. Expect to hear more of this as the campaign continues.
3) Harris argued that Trump would side with his “allies” on abortion
On abortion rights, Harris first made it crystal clear that it was Trump’s “hand-picked members of the Supreme Court of the United States” who struck down abortion rights. (A surprising number of voters in swing states hold false beliefs (That Biden did it.)
Harris quoted Trump Comment A Fox News town hall is taking credit for flipping Roe v. Wade: “I did it, and I’m proud to do it.” He then went on to argue that a second Trump term would lead to dire developments for reproductive rights:
“As part of his agenda, he and his allies will limit access to birth control, ban medication abortions and ban abortion nationwide with or without Congress. And to get it, he plans to create a national anti-abortion coordinator and require states to allow women to have abortions and Compulsory reporting of abortions.”
“Simply put,” he continued, “they are out of their minds.”
Now, Trump hasn’t actually said he’s going to do any of these things. He was vague on what he would do on abortion policy if re-elected, but generally suggested he would try to leave things up to the states.
But Harris is suggesting that he is lying and that he will actually side with extreme proposals put forward by some of his anti-abortion rights allies.
Project 2025 includes proposals to limit access to certain birth control and roll back federal approval of medical abortion drugs — a policy plan for the next GOP president drafted by conservative advocates (including many former Trump appointees) that Trump has tried to partially deny. Now it has become a political liability for him.
Harris’ suggestion that Trump and his allies would ban abortion nationwide is unlikely to prove correct. Such a clear proposal is not even in Project 2025 and is seen as politically impossible on the right (though anti-abortion rights groups would love to see it happen in a perfect world).
But Trump will have a hard time pushing back against the criticism because he appointed the Supreme Court justices who overruled Ro. The reality is that anti-abortion rights activists are one of Trump’s and the GOP’s most important and loyal constituencies, and they have reined in abortion rights to the greatest extent they deem politically possible.
Trump’s anti-abortion allies framed his position on the issue when he first came into office. Harris wants to make the case that they will do it again if they win a second term.
