Kamala Harris has IDENTITY, Republicans CRISIS

"I didn't know she was Black," said Donald Trump before the Association of Black Journalists in Chicago. Trump said this at a Black Journalists' event. It was an attempt to tell voters that Harris is using bi-racial identity to win the 2024 US presidential elections. But here's the problem facing the Grand Old Party (GOP). Harris and her presumptive nomination as the Democratic presidential candidate is all about her many identities. It is also about the identity crisis that Trump and the Republican Party are facing and the lack of multitudes in the GOP's campaign.

In Harris, there is an American, an Indian, a Jamaican, a woman, a lawyer, a Senator, a reproductive rights' supporter, a Vice President and a presumptive Democratic presidential nominee. The Republican Party is perplexed by the multiple identities in Harris as it would help her connect with people from various identity groups. The GOP is trying to make all possible attempts to contest it, but the problem is -- its own crisis.

These attacks on Harris come at a time when Harris's approval rating has increased by 8%, ABC News reported, while citing an Ipsos poll.

The Republican Party and Trump had realised the need to reach out to a wider range of population too in the US. Surprisingly, they picked a man from the working class with an Indian-origin wife as Trump's running mate, JD Vance.

All eyes were on Vance and his wife, Usha.

Then, Harris entered the race.

KAMALA HARRIS AND HER MANY IDENTITIES

The attacks began. The Republican rivals said she was "too radical", had a "funny laugh" and ws a "childless cat lady".

Trump warned his voters about the "leftist radical President".

"She’s a radical-left person and this country doesn’t want a radical left person to destroy it. She’s far more radical than he [Biden] is. She wants open borders. She wants things that nobody wants. You have a look at the electric car mandate – everything," Trump told The Guardian.

Republicans are letting their voters know, more immigrants would come. The President with many identities would open the door for people from multiple countries too.

But their own effort to reach out to voters of various ethnicities and Harris's higher approval ratings and large funds in just a few days is making the GOP attack Harris on many fronts, highlighting their own crisis.

They even attacked Harris for being childless.

JD Vance said Harris was part of the "childless cat ladies" who had no stakes in the future of the US.

After this attack, pet-owning women conducted a Zoom call in support of Harris, and they called it, 'Cat ladies for Harris'. Even this dig at the Vice President became a part of her identity and her campaign.

The Republican attack on Harris being Black also comes from their fear of Harris being able to reach out to Black voters who are 10% of the population in several US states. They are the swing voters, according to ABC.

KAMALA HARRIS ON ABORTION RIGHTS IN US

Another important aspect of Harris's campaign is campaigning for abortion rights in the US.

Harris is the first vice president or presumptive nominee to visit an abortion clinic.

“Vice President Harris has made this an incredibly important part of her work on the campaign trail. What this means, fundamentally, is that it’s going to get a lot more attention,” said Christina Reynolds, senior vice president for communications and content at EMILY’s List, an organisation that supports pro-abortion-rights women in politics on NBC.

Jolynn Dellinger, a senior lecturing fellow at Duke Law in Durham, North Carolina, said Harris is “very comfortable talking about the extreme consequences that" we have seen as a result of the overturn of Joe vs Wade, ending the constitutional rights of abortion.

While Donald Trump and the Republicans have tried to dodge the question altogether.

“Roe v. Wade ... wasn’t about abortion so much as bringing it back to the states. So the states would negotiate deals. Florida is going to be different from Georgia and Georgia is going to be different from other places," said Trump.

Donald Trump's son Eric dismissed the subject on NBC's 'TODAY' show by host Savannah Guthrie, when asked about the Republican stance on abortion.

“At the end of the day, this country has real holes in the roof. And you’ve got to fix those holes, and you’ve got to stop worrying about the little spot on the wall in the basement,” he said.

CRISIS OF TRUMP AND THE REPUBLICANS

A new poll on Monday showed that Kamala Harris had one percentage point advantage against Trump.

Harris' public favourability rating also spiked by nearly 8%. The shift in voter sentiments are being swayed by the independent voters, who now favour Harris by a margin of 44 to 40%. These voters were at 28% favourable to 47% unfavourable earlier.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump's approval rating went down to 36% favourable to 53% unfavourable. Earlier it was at 40% favourable, and 51% unfavourable.

Reports also reveal that Harris is more popular than Trump and Joe Biden ever have been in the 2024 election campaigns, reports Newsweek.

This shows Harris is winning the hearts of voters and this is worrying the Republicans.

What more, JD Vance's approval rating are some of the lowest.

"The Vance pick is turning out to be the biggest swing and miss on a running mate selection since Sarah Palin, which is surprising because Vance, unlike Palin, seemed to be a much more prepared and intelligent candidate," David B Cohen, professor of political science at the University of Akron in Ohio told Newsweek.

"While attacks on women who don't have biological children — be that by choice or because of medical reasons — may go over well with most of the MAGA base, it's offensive to many other Americans, including independents and disaffected Republicans — voters the Trump campaign desperately needs in order to win the crucial battleground states," he added.

When questioned about it, he said, he had "nothing against cats."

"A majority of Americans do not like Trump," Cohen told Newsweek. "And having a mini-me on the ticket with Trump is doubly exhausting. In American politics before the Trump era, if a candidate misspoke or said something offensive, that candidate would apologise and put the issue to rest. By digging in, Vance has kept this issue in the public eye, which has been a gift to the Harris campaign."

As for Trump, many Republicans are also asking him not to attack Harris on her identity.

“He needs to focus on the policies of the Biden-Harris administration,” Shelley Moore Capito, a Republican Senator from West Virginia told The Washington Post.

Carolina senator, Lindsey Graham said their party should skip attacking Harris's race.

“Every day we’re talking about her heritage and not her â€æ record â€æ is a good day for her and a bad day for us," said Graham.

"What have we been talking about all week long? Childless cat women. DEI candidates. Now 'Is she Black? Is she Indian?'" said Senator Lisa Murkowski, a Trump critic from the Republican Party, according to Newsweek.

"Maybe they don't know how to handle the campaign, so they default to issues that simply should not be an issue," she added.

The crisis in the Republican Party is visible along with the many identities of Kamala Harris.

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