Lindsey Graham has told Donald Trump what he needs to do to beat Kamala Harris, after polls showed the vice president quickly overtaking him.
Overall, the race is neck and neck, according to a new CBS News/YouGov poll. Nationally, Harris leads Trump 50 percent to 49 percent among likely voters. In the swing states, the race is now tied at 50 percent.
Graham, the South Carolina senator, said Trump should focus on the issues where Harris is weak, rather than stirring up controversy over her identity as a mixed-race woman.
“The problem I have with Kamala Harris is not her race, it’s her judgment,” Graham told Fox News on Sunday.
“She’s been wrong about everything. When she tried to explain what she was going to do about inflation and an impending recession, it didn’t make sense. It’s nonsense.”
Lindsey Graham has told Donald Trump what he needs to do to beat Kamala Harris in November, after polls showed the vice president overtaking the former president
Graham was questioned about Trump’s comments during a National Association of Black Journalists conference in Chicago on Wednesday.
Trump told a hostile audience that he “didn’t know” Vice President Kamala Harris was black and thought she was “all Indian.”
The former president said Harris “became a black person” after promoting her Indian heritage.
Graham continued to advise Trump to avoid distractions surrounding Harris’ identity after highlighting the diversity in his home state.
“Every day we talk about her legacy and not about her terrible, dangerous liberal record throughout her political life. It’s a good day for her and a bad day for us,” Graham said.
“I would therefore encourage President Trump to prosecute the case against Kamala Harris for her poor judgment.”
Graham added that Trump’s first term has been “an incredible national security presidency” and that he should not get distracted but talk about the issues that are strongest for him and weakest for Harris.
“It’s important that you win to fix a broken border and put the world back in order,” he said. “The American people want their problems fixed.”
South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, one of Trump’s closest allies in Washington, said his nominee should focus on the issues where Harris is weak, rather than playing on Harris’ identity as a biracial woman.
Overall, the race is neck and neck, according to a new CBS News/YouGov poll. Nationally, Harris now leads Trump by 50 percent to 49 percent among likely voters in the race. In the swing states, the race is now tied at 50 percent each
“She’s been wrong about everything,” Graham said Sunday. “When she tried to explain what she was going to do about inflation and a coming recession, it didn’t make sense. It’s nonsense.”
Harris is the first black female vice president of South Asian descent, but Trump suggested that her embrace of black culture was fake.
The drama arose with the very first question, when he was asked about his past attacks on black journalists and lawmakers, and his encounter with a white supremacist at Mar-a-Lago.
After Trump reacted strongly to his opening question during a panel discussion, he took on Harris.
He said, ‘She was always of Indian descent and she was just promoting Indian descent. I didn’t know she was black until a few years ago when she happened to become black, and now she wants to be known as black. So I don’t know, is she Indian or is she black?’
He continued, “And you know what, I respect both of them, but she clearly doesn’t. Because she was all Indian and suddenly took a turn and became a black person. I think someone should look into that.”
Trump later added on Truth Social: “Crazy Kamala says she’s Indian, not black. This is a big deal. Blatant fake. She’s using everyone, including her racial identity!”
It came a day after Harris attended a rally in Atlanta with prominent Black lawmakers and cheering supporters.
Trump has made enormous efforts to win the black vote, and has had some success.
Donald Trump’s interview with ABC’s Rachel Scott, FOX News’ Harris Faulkner and Semafor’s Nadia Goba got off to a tense start
He hosted a campaign rally in the Bronx and invited Blacks for Trump supporters to his rallies.
Harris saw his popularity soar in the polls after gaining widespread publicity by emerging as the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee to replace 81-year-old Joe Biden.
While the two major party nominees are now statistically tied, things looked very different for Democrats just two weeks ago, when polls showed Trump with a five-point lead over Biden before dropping out of the race.
The July poll showed Trump with a three-point lead in a hypothetical showdown with Harris, but the vice president appears to have lost his lead since taking the lead.
When third-party candidates are included, Harris has a 49 percent to 47 percent lead over Trump among likely voters.
The shift comes as Democrats appear to have closed the enthusiasm gap with a shakeup at the top of the Democratic ticket. The number of Democrats who say they will definitely vote this year has reached its highest point yet, the poll found.
Harris appears to be drawing more black voters and women than when Biden was in the race.
Seventy-four percent of Black registered voters said they would definitely vote, the poll found, up from 58 percent who said the same in mid-July when Biden was the nominee.
Harris with Biden on March 26 in North Carolina. Sixty-four percent of registered voters said Harris and Biden have mostly the same policies, while 18 percent said they are exactly the same
When it comes to the gender gap, Trump leads Harris at 54 percent to 45 percent among men. Among women, however, the ratios are reversed: Harris leads at 54 percent to 45 percent.
Voters see Harris as more energetic, focused and competent. Trump leads voters in being seen as tough and effective.
When it comes to cognitive health, Trump, 78, no longer has the advantage he did when he faced Biden. Fifty-one percent of registered voters say he does, but 49 percent say he does not. Sixty-four percent of voters believe Harris has the cognitive health. Just 36 percent say he does not.
When it comes to the crucial states at stake, the races in all seven countries are within the margin of error.
According to a CBS News poll, Harris and Trump are now tied in Arizona at 49 percent, Michigan at 48 percent and Pennsylvania at 50 percent.
Trump leads Harris in Georgia and North Carolina among likely voters, 50 percent to 47 percent, and in Wisconsin, 50 percent to 49 percent. Harris now leads Nevada, 50 percent to Trump’s 48 percent.
Despite the shake-up at the top of the Democratic ticket and increased enthusiasm, voters surprisingly don’t see much difference between Harris and Biden when it comes to policy.
Sixty-four percent of registered voters said Harris and Biden have mostly the same policies, while 18 percent said they are completely the same. Just 18 percent saw them as mostly or completely different.
Trump’s campaign pushed back against the shift in the polls on Sunday afternoon.
They argued in a memo that the shift was the result of a methodological decision that significantly altered ideology. The memo claimed that Biden would be leading 51 percent to 49 percent if that were not the case.
