Laurence Nardon is in charge of the United States program at the French Institute of International Relations (Ifri). She published Trump's United States in 100 Questions (Tallandier, 2018) and analyzes the issues of the US presidential campaign every week in her “Trump 2020” audio podcasts .
FIGAROVOX. - Joe Biden has chosen Senator Kamala Harris as running mate. If the Democrats win, she will be the first female vice president of the United States. Is this a strategic choice on the part of Joe Biden?
Laurence NARDON. - Joe Biden has been thinking about the strategy that should guide his choice for months. This choice is very late, because it was difficult. But by delaying the announcement, Team Biden has also occupied media space in the United States inexpensively.
It's a cautious choice for the Biden campaign, which seeks to fix voters' attention on a troubled President Trump. The latter is criticized from all sides for his procrastination in the face of the health crisis, at a time when new Covid-19 contaminations explode in the country. Biden has just reorganized his campaign by appointing a new director, Bill Stepien, who refocused the message around two axes of attack: Trump accuses Biden on the one hand of being subservient to the radical wing of his party and of wanting "To transform the United States into the Soviet Union", but also to want to open the borders without any brake on immigration. However, Kamala Harris is seen more as a moderate. The attacks from the Trump camp will therefore be ineffective. If Biden had chosen the very radical Elizabeth Warren, the lines of attack would have been much more obvious to Trump. The Democratic ticket could prove complicated to demolish for the 45th President of the United States.
During the Democratic primary campaign, Harris' platform remained extremely vague.Kamala Harris, however, sent mixed signals during the Democratic primaries, supporting the universal health insurance proposal championed by independent Vermont senator Bernie Sanders, then dissociating himself from it. Do you think Donald Trump is mistaken in qualifying her as a "partisan of the radical left"?
Immediately after the announcement of the choice, Donald Trump posted on his Twitter account a video descending soaring the senator. "Kamala Harris campaigned for president by rushing into the arms of the radical left , " he says. This video also accuses him of having called for new taxes to the tune of several "trillions". This fits in with the logic of this Republican strategy which aims to paint Biden as a dangerous socialist. However, during the primary campaign, Harris' program remained extremely vague and she ultimately appeared to be moderate. It is therefore not certain that the Republicans' communication works.
However, the senator had also been very aggressive towards the former vice-president during the Democratic primary. She notably criticized Joe Biden's “courtesy” towards segregationist senators at the start of his political career and denounced his opposition to “busing”, a practice put in place in the 1970s to promote the racial and social mix of American schools. via public transport, to allow children to go to school outside their neighborhood. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are going to have to prove that they have reconciled and that they are on the same line.
Her record as a prosecutor has been criticized by the progressive electorate, especially in California. He criticizes him for sometimes repressive rhetoric, the harshness of his positions in terms of the punishment of petty crimes.Daughter of Jamaican and Indian immigrants, Kamala Harris wishes to be the representative of “black women” . Yet some progressive voters blame her for her past as a prosecutor (from San Francisco and then from California) with a “hard” reputation towards minorities. Will she manage to mobilize the black electorate to vote Democrat?
In terms of ethnicity, Kamala Harris chooses to define herself as "black". However, her record as a prosecutor is criticized by the progressive electorate, especially in California. He criticizes him for a sometimes repressive rhetoric, his reversals on key subjects such as minimum penalties, or the harshness of his positions in terms of the punishment of petty crimes. In the 2020 campaign and especially since the death of George Floyd at the end of May, Harris presents a more demanding line in terms of the defense of minorities.
To read also: Rod Dreher: "America was humiliated in the eyes of the world"
It doesn't appear that choosing Kamala Harris is earning many more black voices for Joe Biden, with the latter already being very popular with that minority. Rather, this choice should be understood as a message to the Democratic electorate as a whole, and in particular to the progressive white electorate, very involved in the historic protest movement against racism and police violence caused by the George Floyd affair.
