How the DNC could further 'destabilize' Trump’s erratic campaign

19 August 2024

This Monday, August 19 — on the opening night of the 2024 Democratic National Convention in Chicago — President Joe Biden is scheduled to give a speech making the case for electing presidential nominee Kamala Harris in November.

GOP nominee Donald Trump has promoted a conspiracy theory in which Biden, at the convention, will derail Harris' campaign and "take back the nomination." But even in far-right MAGA circles, few Republicans actually believe that.

Harris, meanwhile, is telling reporters she still "very much" considers herself the "underdog" in the race even with many polls showing her with small single-digit leads. That, political analysts say, is the vice president's way of encouraging Democratic strategists and organizers to work extra hard between now and November.

In an article published by the conservative website The Bulwark on August 19, journalist A.B. Stoddard argues that the convention gives Democrats a golden opportunity to increase Harris' already-impressive momentum and further "destabilize" Trump's erratic campaign.

"Ever since Donald Trump chose JD Vance as his running mate and then got a new general election opponent a week later," Stoddard explains, "he hasn’t been the same. Watching Vice President Kamala Harris' popularity soar, his polling lead vanish, and Vance become a mistake has been destabilizing. Trump has responded to his campaign freefall by returning to his security blankets of conspiracy and racism."

Stoddard elaborates, "He has also nursed fantasies of Joe Biden returning to the ticket, and claimed that a crowd of thousands attending a Harris rally was fake and produced by artificial intelligence, that his audience on January 6th was larger than the crowd at Martin Luther King Jr.'s 'I Have a Dream' speech, and that 'more than…. 100 percent' of new jobs have gone to migrants."

According to Stoddard, Democrats are going into their 2024 convention with more "energy" than they had in 2016 or 2020.

"The Kamalapalooza will be well-attended by adoring elites and Hollywood types his MAGA supporters disdain but whose approval Trump craves," Stoddard notes. "Trump's going to spend this week watching the cool kids make fun of him, but — worse than that — he won't be their sole focus. Democrats didn't love Hillary Clinton in 2016, they weren't excited by Biden in 2020, and those campaigns were dominated by Trump."

Stoddard adds, "Trump is about to face something he never has in his nine years in politics. The Democrats' convention will cement that he is no longer the main character.

A.B. Stoddard's full article for The Bulwark is available at this link.

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