In a different world, in a better world, the fact of Kamala Harris’ historic presidential bid as a woman of color would be seen as a feel-good story about a nation’s march toward progress.
But that would be a world in which Donald Trump, the well-known race-baiter and misogynist in chief, wasn’t her opponent.
Maybe the two most significant moments in Dana Bash’s CNN interview with Harris were about things that Harris didn’t say.
When Bash asked about Trump’s famously absurd charge that Harris had somehow just “happened to turn Black,” in order to help her political prospects, Harris answered, smiling, “Same old tired playbook. Next question, please.”
Bash followed with, “That’s it?” To which Harris replied, “That’s it.”
They moved on to the next question, but that wasn’t it.
Near the end of the interview, Bash asked Harris about her campaign seeming to downplay the topics of race and gender. Bash noted the already iconic photo — taken by the brilliant New York Times photographer Todd Heisler, formerly of the Rocky Mountain News — of Harris’ young great-niece admiring her aunt’s acceptance speech at the Democratic convention and the chord it has struck with so many people.
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Harris gushed about the photo and about her niece, Amara, who’s 8, of course. Her braids. Her brains. But she answered the race and gender question by saying she would be the president for all people regardless of race or gender.
Of course, she did.
Harris could have, but didn’t, speak of the pride of a young girl — the Next Generation, as the Times put it — seeing someone who looked like her being nominated for president. Why do you think she didn’t?
Here’s one possible answer. On the day before the Bash interview, Trump had reposted in the dark hole of his social-media site a photo of Harris with Hillary Clinton, with the caption — and, WARNING, please make sure the kids don’t see this — “Funny how blowjobs impacted both their careers differently…”
This nasty piece of vulgarity from the adjudicated rapist who has been caught bragging about assaulting women, referred, of course, to Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky, but more to the point about Harris and her 1990s dating relationship with former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown, suggesting that Harris, uh, slept her way to the top.
It’s a twofer for Trump. With one repost, he sexualizes Black people while furthering an old sexist trope.
It’s vulgar and it’s vile and it’s from an old, tired playbook and Trump seems to believe it will work. And who’s to say he’s wrong?
Just that one posting should disqualify him as presidential material, just as the happened-to-turn-Black thing should, and just as — and here’s the problem — about a million different other things that approximately half the nation seems satisfied to ignore.
I hope he gets asked about his racism and misogyny at the Sept. 10 presidential debate. It’s Trump who should have to answer these questions, not Harris. It’s the racist who should be called out. I mean, this is the point where the word “weird” just doesn’t do enough.
And as I’ve often said, the problem with Trump is that it’s hard to even know where to begin. The most recent Trump scandal took place at the Arlington National Cemetery, at which his campaign broke well-known rules, apparently willfully, about using the cemetery as a backdrop for a political video.
He was there supposedly to honor the 13 soldiers who died during the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan. But he was mostly there to make sure people saw him doing it and later alluding to Joe Biden’s — and therefore Kamala Harris’ — failures during the withdrawal.
And when a cemetery official tried to stop the Trump campaign from taking photos at the gravesites in Section 60 — reserved mostly for those who fought in Afghanistan and Iraq — she was, according to a U.S. Army statement, “abruptly pushed aside” by two people in the Trump campaign.
Not surprisingly, the Trump camp denied there was any altercation. And even less surprisingly, a Trump spokesman said the employee in question was “clearly suffering from a mental health episode.” Of course, she’s a woman. She must have been hysterical.
The Army, which is loath to enter into a political fray, added in its statement that it was “unfortunate that the A.N.C employee and her professionalism had been unfairly attacked.”
It wasn’t just unfortunate. It was despicable. And, just to add to the issue, Trump later released a video, set to music, on Tik Tok of him smiling at the gravesite.
To paraphrase Trump from a different military-cemetery scandal — just asking here: but how many military-cemetery scandals does one person get away with? — those rules are for “losers” and “suckers.”
There is so much to ask Trump about. In one day — “24 Hours of Trump,” as the Washington Post article detailing the day put it — Trump not only reposted the Clinton-Harris photo with the vulgar caption, but also posts containing QAnon messaging, one showing fake images of Harris and other Democrats in orange-prison jumpsuits and another calling for Barack Obama to face a military tribunal.
When not ranting on social media in those 24 hours, he was busily implying that Biden and Harris were responsible for the Secret Service lapses during the assassination attempt on Trump, telling Dr. Phil — yeah, of course — “I think to a certain extent it’s Biden’s fault and Harris’ fault,” adding, “They weren’t too interested in my health and safety.”
As if that weren’t enough, earlier in August, Trump had reposted a parody of Alanis Morissette’s song “Ironic,” which substituted the word “Moronic.” And the song goes on to say that Harris “spent her whole damn life down on her knees.” And if you hadn’t already guessed it, yes, a photo of Willie Brown then pops up on the screen.
Look, we know that Trump is an equal opportunity offender when it comes to personal and political insults. He insults those big and small, Black and white, Hispanic and Jewish, Democratic and Republican. And so he calls Harris a “wack job,’” a “radical Marxist,” a “fascist,” “dumb as a rock,” “a bum” and “real garbage,” among countless other insults.
The major criticism you can make of Harris’ do-no-harm interview, which she held along with running mate Tim Walz, is that she was overly cautious. It’s true, to the point where she simply dodged a few tough questions about policy, about Biden’s capacities, about some notable flip-flops. The caution was all by design.
But it’s also not an accident that a Black, South Asian woman running for president has to walk a fine line between being a commanding presence — which she accomplished — and also meeting standards that a white male candidate wouldn’t have to consider.
And so, we should consider this: On the morning of the CNN interview, we saw the kind of ugly language that Trump routinely employs come to Denver — involving racist signs posted along bus stops on Colfax Avenue. The signs, presumably posted by a Trump supporter, targeted Harris and, naturally enough, migrants. One of the signs read, “Blacks must sit at the back of the bus. Kamala’s migrants sit in the front.”
The signs were outrageous and racist affronts and taken down by city officials as soon as they were sighted.
And I’d guess that a photo of the signs, if they haven’t been already, could be approvingly posted and, of course, approvingly reposted on Trump’s Truth Social site any day now.
Yes, they’re real garbage posted by bums. And the one person you can be sure the signs don’t offend has already been president and, because nearly half the country seems prepared to ignore whatever toxic language he uses or actions he takes, could very well be back in the White House again.
Mike Littwin has been a columnist for too many years to count. He has covered Dr. J, four presidential inaugurations, six national conventions and countless brain-numbing speeches in the New Hampshire and Iowa snow. Sign up for Mike’s newsletter.
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