AP Photo/Evan Vucci
No time like the present to "chart a new course," right?
Donald Trump rewrote the playbook last night on conventions. Normally the opposition candidate waits for the 'vibes' to settle down before formally responding. Instead, Trump tried to get out in front of the reaction immediately after Kamala Harris left the DNC stage in Chicago. First he appeared on Fox News, speaking for ten minutes with Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum until the network cut away to Gutfeld.
Trump scoffed at Harris' speech, noting that she hadn't discussed any real issues of import, and certainly without offering even a shred of substance. Trump seemed most incensed about Harris' references to 'Project 2025,' calling it a lie. But Trump really scored with his core argument -- why doesn't Harris act now to solve the problems she outlines?
In fact, what has she done for the last three-plus years on any of these issues, especially as the 'border czar'?
Trump offered his thoughts on a range of issues, although he clearly wanted to emphasize Harris' Marxism as a campaign issue. He did the same on Newsmax immediately after the end of his Fox News interview. He pushed the same message with Greg Kelly and Mercedes Schlapp, but here as on Fox, Trump hit Harris and Joe Biden best on the border crisis.
If Harris wants to "chart a new course," the border would be a great place to start.
I lightly live-blogged the Fox interview as it happened last night; I hadn't seen the Newsmax interview until now. Rumor had it that Trump would deliver a live, extemporaneous speech on his Truth Social platform as soon as Harris stopped speaking, but either that was not accurate or Trump changed his mind.
The TV interviews were novel enough, however. Trump not only showed the energy to keep up, but the ability to quickly land on the weak points of Harris' presentation and exploit them. The weakest of these is the "new course" line, and Trump deftly skewers it with the simple argument: What is Kamala waiting for? She's already Vice President, and now functionally the regent of what's left of Joe Biden's presidency.
It does raise an interesting question, however. The plan going into yesterday seemed to be that Robert Kennedy's withdrawal from the race today in Phoenix (and presumed endorsement of Trump) would be the way in which Trump would blunt any momentum Harris gets coming out of Chicago. And that may still be the case, but clearly Trump wanted to get an earlier start on that effort. It may work, too; other news agencies had to cover Trump's reaction at the same time that they analyzed Harris' speech. That at least cuts into the news-cycle oxygen Harris wanted to monopolize at least until RFK gets up to speak today. And Trump may have used a shotgun approach in these interviews, but he hit a few targets while doing so.
Will it work? Stay tuned. I'd watch the betting markets over the weekend to judge the polling bump Harris gets, especially if Kennedy really does endorse Trump. But keep an open mind until Labor Day on this data as well as the polling.