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Sometimes, it is difficult to tell whether Donald Trump’s campaign staff actually want him to win the election or whether they are just really bad at their jobs.
On Sunday, their ineptitude/indifference reached another level when the former president’s campaign amplified a clip of Vice President Kamala Harris that shows her in a favorable light and refutes multiple GOP talking points.
Here is a tweet from the Trump War Room account, which describes itself as the “Official War Room account of the 2024 Trump campaign. This account punches back 47x harder.” However, after watching this you could legitimately ask whether they mean that they are punching themselves in the face.
Kamala Harris says "it's a mistake" to ask how she plans to pay for the few economic proposals she has outlined in her campaign.
(This is why she has been avoiding the press for so long) pic.twitter.com/r3OTdRHaax
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) August 18, 2024
Let’s count the ways in which this is better for the Democratic presidential nominee than for Trump.
First of all, Harris has been criticized for not taking questions from the press. That criticism has not only come from Trump, vice presidential candidate JD Vance, and the campaign, but also from the media.
Yet, here she is, taking and answering questions from reporters.
Then there is the response itself.
Harris gets her point across, which is that programs such as a $6,000 child tax credit or providing first-time home owners with a $25,000 down payment have to be viewed not only in terms of their initial cost but also the long-term benefits.
Below is her complete answer to the question of how she will pay for these programs*:
Sure, well, I mean, you just look at it in terms of what we are talking about, for example, around children, and the child tax credit and extending the [earned income tax credit]. That is $6,000 for the first year of a child’s life. The return on that investment in terms of what that will do, what it will pay for, will be tremendous. We’ve seen it, when we did it the first year of our administration, we reduced child [poverty] by over 50 percent, so that’s a lot of the work. And then what we’re doing in terms of the tax credits, we know that there is a great return on investment. And when we increase home ownership in America, what that means in terms of increasing the tax base, not to mention property tax base, what that does to fund schools, again — return on investment. I think it’s a mistake for any person who talks about public policy to not critically evaluate how you measure the return on investment. When you are strengthening neighborhoods, strengthening communities, and in particular the economy of those communities and investing in a broad-based economy, everybody benefits, and it pays for itself.
First of all, the answer is coherent. Harris clearly knows what she is talking about. That is already a major difference to Trump, who hardly ever gives specific answers to specific questions and instead just rambles on.
In addition, her answer also flies in the face of the former president’s assertion that Harris is “dumb” and a “lunatic.”
Finally, there are the initiatives themselves.
Both the child tax credit and the down payment assistance will undoubtedly be popular with young people, i.e., those who have kids and are buying their first homes.
So why amplify them?
The weirdest thing is that the “War Room” does what campaigns usually do, which is to try to twist what an opposing candidate has to say.
Trump’s people do so in this case.
“Kamala Harris says ‘it’s a mistake’ to ask how she plans to pay for the few economic proposals she has outlined in her campaign,” the tweet states.
However, anybody who actually listens to the answer knows that this takes three words completely out of context and doesn’t reflect what Harris is saying at all.
So why include the video?
Normally, when you try to distort an answer, the last thing you want to do is to also include a video with the entire soundbite disproving your interpretation. Yet that is exactly what is happening here.
Really, the only thing Trump’s team didn’t do was to also link to Harris’s fundraising page.
*We believe in quoting candidates extensively in their own words to give our readers an understanding that goes beyond the tiny snippets campaigns and opposition researchers provide. Here, for example, is one example for Trump.
