Repub­li­cans walk fine line in flip­ping attacks to define Har­ris as ‘weird’

Kamala Harris’s ascen­sion to the top of the tick­et has ener­gized the Demo­c­ra­t­ic base and refo­cused Repub­li­can attack lines. With few­er than 100 days to go until the elec­tion, defin­ing Kamala Har­ris will take place at break-neck speed. This Wash­ing­ton Exam­in­er series will take a clos­er look at var­i­ous aspects of her cam­paign and per­sona. Part Six is on “Kamala’s ‘weird’ fac­tor.” Read parts one, two, three, four, and five.
Repub­li­can strate­gists are turn­ing Democ­rats’ attacks on for­mer Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump and Sen. J.D. Vance (R‑OH) back around to keep up a con­sis­tent stream of mes­sag­ing over the last three and a half years — Vice Pres­i­dent Kamala Har­ris is the “weird” one in the 2024 pres­i­den­tial con­test.
“Weird” has become a cen­ter­piece of the Har­ris cam­paign in recent weeks, with Democ­rats going above and beyond to por­tray Trump and Vance as “weird.” This may have been pre­empt­ing a Repub­li­can effort to cast Har­ris as the true “weird” one, point­ing to her famous long-wind­ed com­ments and curi­ous behav­ior. But, accord­ing to two GOP oper­a­tives, recent devel­op­ments have com­plete­ly changed …