More things to come by way of lies and garbage from the Trump campaign

There is a saying that is very relevant to politics, especially American Presidential politics: If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.

Luckily, in the context of what is taking place in the United States over the last few days, if a candidate was so innocent as to not know what is coming, they had no business getting involved. If Senator Kamala Harris did not foresee the things coming out of the Trump campaign after being the pick for the Democratic Vice-Presidential candidate, she really does not deserve to be the running mate of Joseph Biden; and if she did believe that much of the nonsense being spewed does not have the blessings of Donald Trump, she is really more ignorant than one could have imagined. Fortunately for Biden and the Democrats, Senator Harris is neither stupid nor naïve.

It is not just the Democrats and Senator Harris. All of America and the world know how rotten and depraved the political environment in and around Washington has come to be especially since the last decade, and more so from the time a self-styled genius came to sit behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office. So if third-rate vicious lies, patently bogus disinformation and outright garbage is being spewed in the name of running a campaign, that should certainly not come as a surprise.

In fact, the Democrats and Senator Harris should resign themselves to the fact that this is just the beginning, and over the next 80 days or so, there is more to come and only in varying depths of venom. What else could the Democrats expect from a sitting President who has taken upon himself to get re-elected come what may and even going to the extent of sowing seeds of doubt of not voluntarily vacating the White House, should he lose on November 3?

Harris and the Democrats were probably not too perturbed when President Trump welcomed the news of the Vice Presidential pick by calling her “nasty” and “mean” and even going on to feel sorry for Biden. But on the second day, the genius could not contain himself and latched on to a racist rant that has its origins in the Barack Obama days—that Senator Harris’ candidacy is itself dubious as she is not a citizen of the United States by virtue of the fact that her parents were not American citizens at the time of her birth.

In repeating a discarded theory, Trump tried to play coy so as to not appear downright racist: that he only “heard” of this, a classic play out of his book to merely repeat something downright offensive and insensitive, claiming someone else had said it!

The so-called birther theory that has been espoused by extremist nativists and right wing loonies first gained real traction during the Obama days, with Trump himself as one of its cheerleaders. But when proved that Obama was born in Hawaii and not Kenya, Trump had to put a bag on his head and accept the fact rather sheepishly. This time around, constitutional and legal experts have already rubbished what is being put out by the extremists; and nearly all sober-minded people are asking Trump and his cronies to spend a few minutes reading the 14th Amendment to the American constitution. What constitution would perhaps be the answer!

The birtherism will not fade away easily; it will stay right through in the same way a smear campaign is underway on social media that the choice of Kamala Harris is actually a let down for American blacks—that Senator Harris is half-Indian and half-Jamaican, not Black; and that when she first came to the Senate, she referred to herself as an Indian-American.

All through her adult life, Senator Harris has made the point that while she is proud of her Indian heritage, she and her sister have always been brought up Black by her mother. In fact, Senator Harris’ under-graduate degree is from Howard University in Washington D.C., a predominantly African-American institution. In fact, media reports have always had it that when Senator Harris became a junior Senator of California, she was always spoken of as the second African-American female in the Chamber after Senator Carol Moseley Braun of Illinois.

Scandalous still is the disinformation peddled by Trump allies that Senator Harris is involved in something called PizzaGate, or a child sex-trafficking racket that goes back to Hillary Clinton, which was supposedly run by top flight Democrats out of a pizza parlor in Washington DC. In a bizarre way, those spreading this obnoxious information have tried to link Senator Harris through her sister who is supposed to have attended a Clinton “Pizza Party” during the course of the 2016 campaign. Social media platforms are trying to reign in outrageously slanderous statements before they attract traction, but somehow the initial damage always seems to be done, forcing the injured party to indulge precious time and resources in firefighting exercises.

From the look of the first few days after the announcement of the Vice Presidential pick, it appears that the road to the White House is going to get dirtier for the Biden-Harris team as they would be forced to play gutter ball with the opponents. Clearly, President Trump and his campaign team seem to be rattled in spite of that brave face; the Democrats as a party seem determined to give all that it takes to make a bid for the White House, retaining the House of Representatives and with some luck, winning the Senate.

According to a media report, in all of 2019, Joseph Biden was able to get only USD 60 million in contributions to his campaign, but in a span of only two days after he announced that his running mate will be Senator Harris, the team raked in US$ 50 millions, a fantastic amount by any stretch of imagination!

(The writer was a former senior journalist in Washington D.C. covering North America and the United Nations)

(The Federal seeks to present views and opinions from all sides of the spectrum. The information, ideas or opinions in the articles are of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Federal)