Going on offense

Donald Trump has clearly gone on offense, in the election campaign at least. Usually that means going negative – about the other candidate’s personal traits and habits, for example. But here it means venturing into enemy territory – into States no Republican has carried for more than half a century. Most Republicans wouldn’t think of spending the time or money – but Trump is no ordinary Republican. And perhaps he has discovered that one doesn’t win a war – or an election campaign – by defense, but by offense.

Going on offense in blue States

Minnesota would seem a most unlikely Republican carry. Before the Election of 1932, Republicans always carried Minnesota. (Theodore Roosevelt, who carried it in 1912, technically wasn’t a Republican anymore – but that was just that: a technicality.) Beginning in 1932 with Franklin D. Roosevelt, every Democratic candidate has carried Minnesota, with two exceptions. Adlai E. Stevenson lost it to “Ike” in 1952 and 1956. George S. McGovern, of course, lost it in 1972, along with every State except Massachusetts and the District of Columbia.

At present, Minnesota is supposed to “lean Democratic.” But yesterday evening, Trump and running mate Sen. J. D. Vance (R-Ohio) held a rally in St. Cloud, Minnesota.

Vance came out swinging against Vice-President Kamala Harris, the now-presumptive Democratic nominee. Harris, during the Republican National Convention, had heaped scorn on his nomination:

Project 2025 is part federal job bank, part agenda for the first 100 days or so of a Trump administration. Democrats will produce nothing but wild exaggeration of its actual goals or mission. Vance responded colorfully:

Kristinn Taylor at The Gateway Pundit furnished this partial transcript of Vance’ remarks:

I saw the other day, Kamala Harris questioned my loyalty to this country. That’s the word she used, “loyalty.” And it’s an interesting word (Semper fi), loyalty. Because there is no greater sign of disloyalty to this country than what Kamala Harris has done at our southern border.

And I’d like to ask the vice president what she has done to question my loyalty to this country? I served in the United States Marine Corps. I went to Iraq for this country. I built a business for this country. And my running mate took a bullet for this country.

So my question to Kamala Harris is: What the hell have you done to question our loyalty to the United States of America?

And the answer my friends is, nothing. So let’s send a message to the media. Let’s send a message to Kamala Harris. Let’s send a message to every hard working patriot from Minnesota, across the country, we are ready to have President Donald J. Trump back and we’re gonna work our tails off to make sure it happens. God bless you all! Thank you. And thank you for having me, Minnesota, a great state!

At the end of his speech, Vance introduced Trump, who, like Vance, began with a condemnation of the latest rocket attack on northern Israel.

Then Trump talked about the sorry state of America under the Biden-Harris administration.

Touting “green” solutions is all very well in California. But they won’t play in a Rust Belt State like Minnesota.

Going on offense against Harris

Some influencers question the timing of going on offense in blue States. What, they ask, if Kamala Harris keeps her bounce? So Republicans everywhere are going on offense another way: attacking Kamala Harris on matters of policy. Key to this strategy is recognizing – and sharing – that Harris’ policy views are similar to Biden’s in every way.

Vincent Scuzzese, who runs a political novelty store in New Jersey, understands this. (Sources: The Gateway Pundit, the New York Post, and The Los Angeles Times.) His Let’s Go Brandon Store had to rebrand immediately when Biden dropped out of the race. So he changed “Brandon” to “Brenda” in the store’s name and his merchandise. Sales have been brisk, and the storekeeper knows why:

Biden dropped out, but Kamala has the same views — even worse views. She’s more socialist.

She also has a problem with the truth, or at least her campaign has. Now that Kamala Harris has embraced the false narrative about Project 2025 with a poster reading, “We’re not going back,”

several organizations have checked her truth claims – and found them false. Margaret Flavin of The Gateway Pundit has details. Incredibly, the most prominent “fact checker” was CNN! They begin with this link to the Project 2025 document, which runs to 920 pages. Then they added this:

Facts First: One of Harris’ claims about Project 2025 is false, while another is at least misleading. The Project 2025 document does not show that Trump intends to cut Social Security; the document barely discusses Social Security at all and does not propose cuts to the program. In addition, contrary to Harris’ suggestion, Project 2025 does not call to “end” the Affordable Care Act or eliminate its protections for people with pre-existing conditions. The document does criticize the Affordable Care Act, especially the law’s expansion of Medicaid, but makes clear it is advocating changes to the law rather than terminating the law entirely.

A Harris campaign official said the campaign has “made a deliberate decision to brand all of Trump’s policies” as “Project 2025,” since they believe “it has stuck with voters.”

After the initial publication of this article, a Harris campaign spokesperson, Joseph Costello, added, “Project 2025 is a blueprint for many of the dangerous policies we know that a second Trump term would include, and it is indisputable that in his first term, Donald Trump repeatedly tried to cut Social Security and end the Affordable Care Act.”

Mary Vought, a spokesperson for Project 2025 and the Heritage Foundation, said, “Harris should follow her own advice and read the book instead of promoting lies and misinformation.”

More problems with the truth

A group calling itself VERIFY said flatly that Kamala Harris is wrong about something else she said about Project 2025:

VERIFY’s post link resolves to a detailed treatment of the claim. It turns out that the Heritage Foundation (the Project organizers) want to use Individualized Education Program funds at schools other than government schools. That’s not the same as discontinuing the program completely.

USA Today had its own article belying Harris’ truth claims. Yesterday a reporter, who once interviewed Vance before he ran for the Senate, flatly accused the Harris campaign of lying about that interview.

Zounds! This kind of repudiation doesn’t happen every day. In fact repudiation on this level has never happened before to a politician on the left.

And now Seymour Hersh has weighed in. Frank D. Miele (Heartland Diary USA) had called on Hersh to investigate Biden’s dropout from the race. Now he has, and TGP’s Cullen Linebarger has a summary. (Hersh’s Substack page lies behind a paywall, and offers a seven-day free trial subscription.) Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) wasn’t the only one telling Biden he could go the easy way or the hard way. Barack Obama told Biden that, if he didn’t drop out, Vice-President Harris would start gathering signatures on a Vice-Presidential Declaration of Presidential Inability, per Amendment XXV, Section 4. And Obama had Harris’ direct authorization to make that threat. He had further authorization from Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), the Senate and House Democratic Leaders.

Whom will Harris nominate as Vice-President?

Seymour Hersh apparently also says Obama would accept Kamala Harris as an alternative candidate. That contradicts an earlier report that Obama wanted Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), but Biden threw a monkeywrench into that plan.

Reports about whom Harris will pick for a running mate are all over the map. These come from Bloomberg, Patriot Pulse, and Mic Drop Politics. One name showing up on all three lists is that of Gov. Josh Shapiro (D-Pa.).

Other names bearing mention include Govs. Tim Walz (D-Minn.), Roy Cooper (D-N.C.), Gretchen Whitmer (D-Mich.), and Andy Beshear (D-Ky.).

All are far leftist, though perhaps not as far left as Harris.

This morning, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) appeared on Maria Bartiromo’s Sunday Morning Futures program to discuss Harris’ candidacy. In more going on offense, DeSantis witheringly criticized Harris’ record:

She’s incredibly vapid, even more incredibly liberal, and she doesn’t have any accomplishments. In fact, she owns all the policies of the Biden-Harris administration. She owns the border, she owns the inflation.

Then he added this criticism of legacy media:

You are in for 100 days of massive gaslighting from the corporate press.

And:

There’s not going to be any pushback from the entrenched corporate media, and they’re going to try to re-rewrite history, and they’re going to try to present her [Harris] as something that she’s just not.

This is what going on offense means. In fact, Trump is continuing a strategy he tried out in New York, after a corrupt judge foolishly placed him under “State arrest” in that State. Recall also that James Piereson has already predicted that Trump will carry Minnesota, Virginia, and New Hampshire. And if the 12,000 overflow crowd outside a stadium that seated 8,000 is any indicator, Minnesota is in play.

In short, Trump and Vance are doing exactly the right things, and should go on doing them.