Stephen Collinson: “Trump’s invective amounts to some of the most hardline political rhetoric in years, even by his own standards, and means the next two months are likely to be brutal.”
“The question is whether this barrage of negative attacks is merely successful in stoking feelings of existential anger Trump uses to drive his base the polls, or whether it begins to tarnish Harris at the margins in battleground states.”
Charlie Sykes: “The history of American politics is, of course full of negative —even vicious — attacks. But, once again, it’s a mistake to see what’s happening as normal.”
“Think of it this way: The 1988 Bush campaign’s ‘Willie Horton’ ad was the subject of controversy for years for exploiting racially-charged imagery.”
“But this year: Trump’s campaign is firing off Willie Horton-style attacks every single day on television, social media, and in hundreds of thousands of mailers. And the media basically shrugs it off as Trump being Trump.”
