We've seen a lot of movement in the polls over the last couple of weeks, with signs pointing to a clear momentum shift in GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump's direction in the closing days of the campaign.
For instance, as we reported Thursday, there has been what some have called a "massive increase" in Trump's support among black and Hispanic voters, confirming a trend that started in 2016, and something which - if those trends hold through Election Day - potentially could spell disaster for Democrat presidential nominee Kamala Harris.
Further, Trump has closed the gap with Harris in the final New York Times/Siena poll of this election cycle, with some prominent data analysts now suggesting there's a "real shot" he could win the popular vote, which would be the first time a GOP nominee had done that in 20 years.
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While there are many likely reasons behind this shift, far-leftists in the Democrat Party and their allies are in part blaming Harris' focus on appealing to moderate Republicans by way of touring with Liz Cheney, suggesting Harris is in effect trying to hide the more "progressive" members of her party by keeping them out of the national spotlight:
Specifically, several progressive leaders believe that the Democratic nominee has been too focused on winning over moderate Republicans in recent days at the expense of her own party’s passionate liberals. And they say that Harris’ closing message, which is increasingly centered on Republican Donald Trump and the threat he poses to U.S. democracy, ignores the economic struggles of the nation’s working class.
Some far-left leaders are also irked that Harris has shared the stage in recent days with former House Republican leader Liz Cheney and billionaire businessman Mark Cuban while progressive icons like Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have been relegated to low-profile roles.
[...]
Sanders noted that he’s been doing whatever he’s asked to help Harris win. He has participated in two dozen Harris campaign related-events this month alone, although they’re largely in rural areas. None have been with Harris.
“She has to start talking more to the needs of working-class people,” Sanders said. “I wish this had taken place two months ago. It is what it is.”
Look, Bernie Sanders knows what she's doing - he admitted as much during a September interview.
"No, I don't think she's abandoning her ideals. I think she's trying to be pragmatic and doing what she thinks is right in order to win the election," he said at the time.
Watch:
🚨QUIET PART OUT LOUD🚨
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) September 8, 2024
Welker: "Do you think Kamala is abandoning her progressive ideals?"
Bernie: "I think she is trying to be pragmatic and do what she thinks is right in order to win the election." pic.twitter.com/qtwmgui7vd
And therein lies one of the biggest if not the biggest problem with Kamala Harris herself. She will say anything it takes to get elected, telling certain audiences what they want to hear and then adjusting her message to say the exact opposite at the next stop.
While that's not uncommon for politicians, Harris has taken it to an art form to the extent that she hasn't wanted to talk at all about her 2019 presidential campaign positions on issues like fracking and illegal immigration because she's flip-flopped on almost all of them. She's even gone so far as to claim policy positions proposed by Trump as her own, like no taxes on tips, an astonishing move considering she's been portraying him as the next Hitler.
Harris had the benefit of not running a primary campaign, where you typically see candidates do everything they can to appeal to their base of voters. But with that has come some steep challenges.
She's had to run a general election campaign walking a tightrope, where hardliners in her party expect and demand to be appeased all while Harris tries to assure independent voters and NeverTrump-types that she's not the woke Democrat she actually is.
This is why Republicans needed not to let up on putting the pressure on her campaign to sit down for interviews and on the media to ask the tough questions once she did. Even though she's interviewed with mostly Dem-friendly outlets, who she really is (and isn't) has been exposed in the process. It was only a matter of time.
Will Harris' lack of authenticity and trying to have it both ways with progressives and moderates/centrists hurt her on November 5th? All we can do is speculate at this point, but if the infighting continues, if early voting trends in states like North Carolina and Nevada hold, and black and Hispanic voters translate their support in the polling to a vote at the ballot box for Trump, I'd be very, very worried right now if I was Kamala Harris. Very worried.
FLASHBACK: The WaPo Stumbles Upon the Biggest Issue With Kamala Harris
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