OAN Staff Brooke Mallory
5:41 PM – Friday, August 9, 2024
Democrats are cautioning that Vice President Kamala Harris needs to bolster her economic pitch, especially with the upcoming ABC News debate coming up.
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It is still unclear if she will agree to take on Trump in the other two scheduled debates. After reporters recently questioned her about it, she only mentioned one out of the three, refraining from saying whether or not she would agree to attend the other two debates.
Since Harris has agreed to the debate that ABC News will arrange and moderate, it is important to note that the network has a history of hiring pundits and reporters who openly despise Trump, like senior congressional correspondent Rachel Scott, and who the former president has sued for spreading false information about him, like host George Stephanopoulos.
Meanwhile, voters’ top concern before Biden’s exit from the campaign last month was the economy, where a number of recent polls showed that Trump was still leading. According to the surveys, respondents had much more faith in Trump than in Biden and Kamala when it came to any sort of economic matters.
The switch from Biden to Harris dominated news headlines. The focus surrounding her stepping up only served to fuel the two-week enthusiasm wave for Harris. However, it has now seemed to settle a bit for Democrats, as Americans are now questioning whether her campaign and the Democrat Party can change the economy for the better after the last few years of major inflation and recent stock market woes under both Harris and Biden.
Democrats also haven’t had to worry too much about policy during the past few weeks. However, Democrat leaders contend that before Republicans push the economy back to the top of their campaign, as it has been shown to be the most important issue to voters, Harris and her running mate, Democrat governor of Minnesota Tim Walz, must get to work to change the general perspective.
“The big question is, ‘Can you win the message war there? Can you convince the hearts and minds, and win the conversation on what the future looks like?’” said Joel Payne, a Democrat strategist. “Obviously Republicans traditionally have an advantage on this. But while you’re litigating the last three years, you need to make sure you’re putting it into context about, ‘Who do you trust in the future’ on the economy.”
“But they need to be ready to have a solid economic argument at their fingertips,” he added. “Biden struggled to articulate that message.”
The economy is becoming a more pressing concern as we approach a turning point after the Federal Reserve implemented a period of interest rate increases and quantitative tightening in response to high post-pandemic inflation.
According to a Morning Consult survey released this month, 42% of voters said they trusted Harris, while 50% said they trusted Trump when it came to the economy. Additionally, another recent Marist poll said that Trump still beat Harris in regards to who would manage the economy better, 51% to 48%.
Due to a wave of severe inflation that affected consumers’ perceptions and his economic approval ratings, Biden and Harris lost favorability. Only 38% of Americans said they were confident in the Biden administration’s management of the economy back in May.
Meanwhile, major executives like JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon expressed how his feelings had changed for the better in regards to Trump and his economic policies.
“Just take a step back and be honest,” JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said earlier this year at an economic forum. “He [Trump] was kind of right about NATO. He was kind of right about immigration. He grew the economy quite well. Trade, tax reform worked. He was right about some of China.”
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