Donald Trump has been largely flying under the radar in the wake of the June 27 CNN debate that imploded the reelection campaign of his opponent Joe Biden. But as speculation grows as to whether or not Biden will remain the Democrat nominee, Trump appears to be turning his attention, at least in part, to the 81 year old’s running mate.
The former president debuted a new nickname for Kamala Harris ahead of next week’s Republican National Convention, and it is inspired by one of the vice president’s most infamous traits – her cackle.
On Wednesday’s show, Megyn was joined by Glenn Greenwald, host of Rumble’s System Update, to discuss Harris’ new moniker and what it says about the state of the 2024 race.
Laffin’ Kamala Harris
It was in a July Fourth message on Truth Social that Trump first introduced a new nickname for Harris. “Also, respects to our potentially new Democrat Challenger, Laffin’ Kamala Harris,” he wrote. “She did poorly in the Democrat Nominating process, starting out at Number Two, and ending up defeated and dropping out, even before getting to Iowa, but that doesn’t mean she’s not a ‘highly talented’ politician!”
On Tuesday, Trump was in front of a crowd for a campaign rally in Doral, Florida, where he re-introduced the ‘Laffin’ Kamala Harris’ moniker and sought to clear up any confusion about the spelling.
“Whatever else can be said about Crooked Joe Biden, you have to give him credit for one brilliant decision – probably the smartest decision he’s ever made – he picked Kamala Harris as his vice president,” Trump said. “It was brilliant because it was an insurance policy, maybe the best insurance policy I’ve ever seen… If Joe had picked someone even halfway competent, they would have bounced him from office years ago. But they can’t because she’s got to be their second choice. There’s no choice… Laffin’ Kamala – L-A-F-F-I-N-apostrophe, laffin’…”
In case you need a reminder of where the GOP hopeful got “Laffin’ Kamala” from, Megyn had her team put together a brief trip down memory lane that you can see in the video above. “It’s not just the laugh itself,” Megyn noted. “It’s that it comes up at the weirdest, most inopportune, inappropriate times.”
Candidate Kamala
Megyn said the recent attention on Harris indicates Trump is at least hedging his bets as to who he will end up facing in November. “He is watching all of this and he has started to take some shots at Kamala,” she noted. “He gave her a nickname, [and] it is kind of like a badge of honor when Trump gives you a nickname.”
In Greenwald’s view, the Democrats have backed themselves into a corner with Harris. “The problem that they have is they cannot just push Kamala Harris aside because – within the confines of the open identity politics rules that they’ve created – that would be racist and misogynistic,” he explained. “You can’t just, like, push a black woman aside and put a white man like Gavin Newsom or a white woman like Gretchen Whitmer at the top of the ticket. That would create a huge revolt among Democratic elites, and black leaders, and the like.”
But Greenwald agrees with Trump’s assessment of the VP. “People have forgotten, [Kamala Harris] is honestly one of the worst politicians we’ve seen in a long time. I think she is even more awkward than Hillary [Clinton] and more unlikable,” he said. “She had every advantage in the 2020 primary – she had all that California money… she had positive press… but she is just not a politician and her campaign was such a disaster that she had to drop out before the first vote was cast.”
That is, he continued, because the Democratic base “just had no connection to her” and, to this day, she doesn’t “excite” black voters or young voters or any of the core demographic the party is after. As such, “Kamala Harris is poison in swing states,” Greenwald concluded. “So, even if they push Biden out, I don’t they’ve gotten that far as to think about, ‘Well, how is that increasing our chances of winning?'”
You can check out Megyn’s full interview with Greenwald by tuning in to episode 833 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s Triumph (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.