(DCNF)—Former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said on Monday that Vice President Kamala Harris’ has an instinct to back far-left policies despite trying to paint herself as a moderate.
Harris said she would not take pollsters’ advice and follow her own instincts regarding the most effective way to campaign, CNN reported. McEnany questioned on Fox News’ “America’s Newsroom” on whether Harris’ attempts to rebrand herself as a moderate candidate will be effective ahead of the 2024 election.
“We’ve seen little inklings of what her instincts are. Passing over [Democratic Pennsylvania Gov.] Josh Shapiro, economic plan of price controls, which has been widely panned as a poor idea,” McEnany said. “Her instincts are gut progressive, but she’s trying to shield that with a moderate venire, will it work?”
Kayleigh McEnany Says Kamala Harris' Far-Left Gut Instincts Could Hurt Her Electoral Chances pic.twitter.com/GrvPK6Ivys
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) August 19, 2024
An ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll found Trump leading Harris on five key electoral issues, while Harris leads 49% to 45% nationally. The former president leads Harris 46% to 36% on immigration, 46% to 37% on the economy, 45% to 36% on inflation, 38% to 33% on the Israel-Hamas war and 42% to 39% on crime.
Harris’ promised to enact a federal ban on corporate “price-gouging” on food and groceries at a Friday rally in Raleigh, North Carolina. McEnany said Harris and her supporters will make non-detailed campaign promises during the Democratic National Convention (DNC) this week since the public did not respond kindly to her “price-gouging” plan.
“I’m reminded of Mario Cuomo where he said you campaign in poetry and you govern in prose. Well prepare to overdose on poetry this week. That didn’t go well, so you are going to see poetry, broad strokes, paintings of lowering costs without much detail or footnote as to how to do that. It’s going to be grandiose, but it’s going to be broad. And this is where the debate is so important for Trump to nail down on specifics,” McEnany said.
The vice president reportedly plans on distancing herself from Biden’s economic agenda in order to convince voters she can mitigate inflation, Axios reported on Wednesday.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Harris had involvement in Biden’s economic policies, which she argued helped the American people during a Wednesday press briefing.
“What I will tell you is Bidenomics has been something that both the president and the vice president has worked on,” Jean-Pierre said. “You guys have called it ‘Bidenomics,’ we talk about how the president is trying to put forward an economic policy building from the bottom-up, middle-out that does not leave behind the middle class and make sure it has equity at the center of it.”
Inflation rose from 1.4% when Biden took office in January 2021 to a peak of 9% in June 2022, making it a politically devastating issue for Biden’s presidency. The Consumer Price Index (CPI), which measures the price of everyday goods, fell below 3% in July for the first time in two years.
Trump accused Harris of copying his plan to eliminate taxes on tips earned by service workers, which he announced two months earlier than the vice president. Harris campaign spokesperson Adrienne Elrod told CNN on Tuesday that the “no tax on tips” idea is part of her “own agenda” that is separate from Biden’s.
The Harris campaign has released campaign advertisements to brand her as a tough-on-the-border candidate, with one campaign ad claiming she will increase the number of Border Patrol agents. The vice president was appointed in March 2021 to address “root causes” of the migrant crisis in Mexico and the Northern Triangle countries, and reportedly never met retired Border Patrol Chief Rodney Scott.