Sen. Scott suggests letting unlikeable Harris talk will be key to Trump's victory

By 
 September 11, 2024

Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris held their long-anticipated first debate Tuesday night on ABC, and given that the determination of which candidate won or lost is fairly subjective, both major party nominees can justifiably claim victory.

There was perhaps one way Trump could have guaranteed a victory, however, according to staunch ally Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL), and that would be to simply allow Harris to "talk 99% of the time," Fox News reported.

That would work for two reasons, in Scott's view, in that the more Harris talks, the more the American people realize they don't like her personally and reject her left-leaning policy proposals.

Which Harris will show up for debate?

In an interview with Fox News before the debate, Sen. Scott said it would be "interesting" to see which version of VP Harris would show up for the debate -- the radical progressive leftist version that he worked alongside in the Senate or the new and ostensibly more moderate variation that has been developed for the campaign season.

Version one is "The Harris that has been part of the Biden administration that has opened the border, ruined the economy and … stopped supporting Israel and allowed Iran to have all the weapons," Scott explained.

"Or is it a new Harris that, you know, that believes the border ought to be secure, and we ought to get inflation under control by allowing free markets to work … allowing oil and gas production in this country so we can get the gas prices down," he added. "So it’ll be interesting to see which Harris shows up."

Let Harris talk

"I think the biggest thing is make sure that Harris talks," Sen. Scott said of former President Trump's key to victory. "When she talks, no one, almost nobody agrees with her -- maybe some socialists would. So I think the biggest thing is for her to talk about her ideas, whether it’s to talk about the border, talk about the economy, talk about foreign policy … there is no logic to her thought process."

The senator also suggested that Trump should emphasize the point that VP Harris is the incumbent who has been in control of the government for the past three years and to press her on why she hasn't yet tried to implement any of her supposedly great ideas.

"When she talks about price controls, that just means product shortages," Scott said. "When she talks about the border, people say, 'Well, why didn’t she do it now?' And because everything she says she’s going to do, I mean, I think the first reaction everybody has is 'Well, why didn’t you do it?'"

The senator also had a few suggested questions for the ABC moderators to ask of Harris, including about the chaotic and deadly Afghanistan withdrawal in 2021 or the devastating impact of inflation on grocery and gas prices. He further recalled of his time spent with her in the Senate that she "wasn’t serious about any policy issues" but, in contrast, "was serious about getting on television."

What do the polls say about Harris?

Whether Sen. Scott's advice for former President Trump about VP Harris worked or not is debatable, he was absolutely correct about one thing -- Harris and her policies, which are laughably called a "new way forward" but are just a rehash of President Biden's failing policies, are broadly disliked by the American people.

According to the Los Angeles Times tracker of Harris' approval rating -- which notably and conveniently was inexplicably suspended in April after three years -- Harris was the most unpopular of all recent vice presidents and was deeply underwater in terms of her favorability.

FiveThirtyEight's tracker of Harris' approval tells a similar tale, as she dipped into negative territory amid the disastrous Afghanistan pullout in 2021 and has remained there ever since -- though her numbers have improved somewhat in recent months, undoubtedly due to the increasingly obvious deterioration of President Joe Biden that makes her look relatively competent in comparison.

As for how Harris stacks up against Trump in the polls, the RealClearPolling national average essentially has the rivals locked in a statistical dead heat with Harris marginally ahead by a single point and the pair effectively tied and splitting the crucial swing states.

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