“Whatever that was…”

| 7:29 pm EDT August 16, 2024
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The Harris-Walz campaign has been showing impressive savvy and personality recently, expertly using humor to get the upper hand and dismantle Donald Trump’s hateful and irrational rhetoric. The campaign scored points and laughs when, on Thursday, it issued a so-called “media advisory” before Trump’s New Jersey press conference, then followed up with a witty press release presenting its own recap of Trump’s failed event.

Trump took the stage after having essentially been introduced by the Harris-Walz campaign, which warned of the tone and substance (or lack thereof) of what would unfold. The advisory, entitled “Donald Trump to Ramble Incoherently and Spread Dangerous Lies in Public, but at Different Home,” cheekily informed the media that Trump (the “loser of the 2020 election by 7 million votes”) would “deliver another self-obsessed rant full of his own personal grievances” for the purpose of distracting away from Project 2025 and other horrific ideas. It was a masterful way of telling people that if they want something other than the same old fake Trump routine, they should change the channel.

At the actual press conference, and Trump didn’t disappoint, according to the Harris-Walz campaign. Referring to Trump’s speech as “whatever that was,” the campaign’s statement reported that Trump “huffed and puffed” in opposition to some popular views “before pivoting back to his usual lies and delusions.” The statement added that “the American people cannot trust a word Donald Trump says,” then explained why they can trust Harris.

Pairing the faux advisory with the later statement, on both sides of the event, enabled the Harris-Walz campaign to effectively define Trump’s performance as a spoiled, expired sandwich that must be discarded. The advisory set the stage by reminding the public of Trump’s predictability, while the summary cleverly circled back to point out the campaign’s own accuracy, bookending the Trumpian nothingburger.

By delivering this one-two punch, the Harris-Walz campaign ensured that Trump’s press conference would be viewed as the joke it was bound to be, while drawing renewed attention to his tired, repetitive rhetoric. The Harris-Walz campaign is telegraphing that it is smart, disciplined, and confident. It’s clear the team knows that injecting some humor where appropriate goes a long way toward reversing the MAGA juggernaut and winning the hearts and minds of voters. This is just one way the campaign is blunting Trump’s “inevitability,” keeping a bright spotlight shining on the raging beast’s massive shortcomings.