NEW YORK (Dagbladet): Publicly, the Trump campaign organization still confidently insists that the election campaign has not changed with the fact that Biden has withdrawn and Kamala Harris has become the presumptive Democratic nominee.

But when Vance met with donors at a private event in Minnesota on Saturday, he admitted that Harris was an “unexpected hit” (“a sucker punch”).

– The bad news is that Kamala Harris doesn't have the same baggage as Joe Biden, Vance says, according to the report. Washington Post.

– unexpected

Biden resigned on July 21. Since then, Democrats have abandoned Harris and their enthusiasm has soared. In just one week, Harris’s campaign organization raised a staggering $200 million (about 2.2 billion Norwegian kroner) and recruited 170,000 volunteers, according to Reuters.

Stepdaughter resists

– We've all been dealt an unexpected political blow. Whatever you say, Kamala is much younger. And Kamala Harris is clearly not struggling in the same way that Joe Biden was, as Vance claims.

The Trump campaign has spent much of its energy attacking Biden for being old. But when Biden, 81, retired, Trump himself, 78, became the oldest presidential candidate in American history. Kamala Harris is 59.

In the past, both Vance and Trump have claimed that they would not change the campaign if Harris replaced Biden. They are trying to tie her more closely to Biden, because of her dissatisfaction with inflation, the situation on the Mexican border, and Trump accuses her of being a “radical left-wing lunatic.”

– She's worse than Joe, Trump claimed in an interview, according to The Washington Post.

– The unique challenge

But during Saturday's event, Vance said Harris was less popular with the public than Trump and Biden, so Republicans had to work to influence people's opinion of her.

Trump said yes

“We have a very unique opportunity, but it’s also a very unique challenge because, let’s be honest, 10 days ago there were two candidates running for president. And everyone had opinions about them. But Kamala Harris doesn’t really know the people,” Vance says.

At the same time, he claims that they should, among other things, attack Harris for her stance on fracking, her view of the police and her handling of the situation at the Mexican border.

But the indicators point to that at the moment. Polls Harris has had a huge impact on Trump since she joined the campaign.

– Maybe he will be silent.

In an interview with Fox News on Monday night, Trump himself said he would likely debate Harris. He was originally scheduled to face Biden in a debate on September 10, but after Biden dropped out, Trump declined to commit to debate Harris instead.

– Very old and strange

He also defended his controversial choice of vice presidential candidate.

– Trump says people who love family will support Vance.

Since his introduction at the Republican National Convention, Vance has seen a flood of negative attention after old clips of the new senator surfaced.

A few years ago, he was a vocal critic of Trump. In a private conversation with a fellow student, he referred to the former president as “America’s Hitler,” according to the report. Independent.

Regret

He also gained a lot of attention for a 2021 interview in which he referred to top Democrats, including Harris, as “cat women who don’t have kids,” and argued that people with kids should have more power than people without children.

As a result of all this negative attention, while Harris appears to be scooping independent and moderate voters away from Trump, there has been loud talk in Republican ranks about replacing the vice presidential candidate.

– If he had a time machine and could go back two weeks, would Trump have picked J.D. Vance again? I doubt it, says conservative commentator Ben Shapiro. His podcast.