What do you do when you’ve had two bad debates in a row and your campaign has been in a freefall for months?
Increasingly desperate things to try and regain relevance, just as Sen. Kamala Harris has done over the last several weeks.
Harris quickly jumped on board impeaching President Trump over reports about the July phone call he had with Ukrainian President Zelensky before the transcript of the call was even released.
Last week she called for a formal impeachment inquiry on Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh based on another flimsily sourced sexual assault allegation reported in the New York Times.
Now Harris has demanded Twitter suspend Trump’s account. She alleged his comments about the so-called whistleblower and certain members of Congress (read: the Squad) “could result in harm to other people:”
“The President’s tweets and his behaviors about this are just further evidence of the fact that he uses his power in a way that is designed to beat people down instead of lift people up,” the 2020 Democratic presidential candidate told CNN.”Frankly, when you look at what he’s been tweeting today directed at the whistleblower, directed at so many people, you know, I, frankly, think that based on this and all we’ve seen him do before, including attacking members of Congress, that he, frankly, should be — his Twitter account should be suspended.”Harris said Trump’s latest tweets, in which he called the whistleblower “close to a spy,” is evidence that he is “irresponsible with his words in a way that could result in harm to other people.”
Here’s the video of Harris on Anderson Cooper’s show Monday night:
She doubled down Tuesday, tagging Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey directly:
She tripled down earlier today, formally asking Dorsey in a letter to suspend Trump:
“Kamala is seriously suggesting Twitter censor the United States President simply because she disagrees. This is how insane the Democratic Party has become,” Trump 2020 advisory board member Jenna Ellis Rives tweeted in response.
All of this comes in the midst of a Politico story on Harris attempting to jump-start her campaign by making some senior staff moves. They also reported on some of the problems that have allegedly been plaguing the campaign:
Behind the scenes, aides said a lack of clarity among staff surrounding the roles of Campaign Manager Juan Rodriguez and Campaign Chair Maya Harris, the candidate’s sister, and inexperience across the organization are feeding a growing sense of indecision and aimlessness inside the campaign.The California senator has decided to elevate her Senate Chief of Staff Rohini Kosoglu and senior adviser Laphonza Butler into new senior management positions in the campaign, including discussions about installing the pair as dual deputy campaign managers, sources with direct knowledge of the arrangement told POLITICO.[…]The campaign did not start holding regular senior staff meetings until September — nine months after launching — leading to a lack of coordination across departments. At one point, aides said, Harris hired executive coaches for senior campaign management to cope with the problems — a move viewed internally as a recognition of their collective inexperience.Aides point to scheduling bottlenecks occurring among the campaign’s three top inside decision-makers: Rodriguez, Maya Harris and Harris, who has a reputation as a micromanager.
News of Harris’ moves startled staffers:
Harris’ campaign was rattled by the leaked report, first published by Politico, that the campaign plans to restructure its senior leadership, prompting a flurry of calls and emails from managers to their subordinates Monday night aimed at calming raw nerves among rank-and-file staff.[…]A person familiar with the dynamic of the campaign described the mood as dark in recent days as Harris’ poll numbers in several national and statewide polls have shown the senator in the low single digits and falling.
In spite of her falling poll numbers and campaign restructuring, which now have her in the second tier of candidates, Harris insisted during her interview with Cooper that she remains a top tier candidate:
“I haven’t read the [Politico] article, Anderson. I can’t tell you what the article says,” Harris said. “We accomplished a great amount of work thus far which makes me a top-tier candidate and by many accounts within the top four, maybe five, but top four in a field of over 20 people.”
Her spin here is pretty incredible:
Harris at this point is a “top tier” candidate only in her own mind.
She had a decent fundraising haul last quarter, but all the money in the world won’t help her if she can’t motivate voters to enthusiastically support her campaign – and stick with it.
The fourth Democratic debate will be held in two weeks. It’ll be on one stage. Her nemesis Rep. Tulsi Gabbard will be there.
Harris will need to pull off a miracle performance in order to flip the script and move the support needle in the right direction. I don’t see it happening, though.
— Stacey Matthews has also written under the pseudonym “Sister Toldjah” and can be reached via Twitter. —
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