“Kamala Harris is mentally handicapped, she was born that way!” said the Republican candidate twice this weekend. Comments virulently criticized, even by elected officials from his party. The analysis of William Genieys, Montpellier academic and research director at the CNRS stationed at SciencesPo Paris.
How far will he go too far? How far will the Republican candidate push the excess to try to stigmatize and discredit his Democratic rival Kamala Harris in the race for the White House?
This is a question that many specialists, analysts, journalists, or actors, or simple citizen voters in this very tense campaign were asking themselves this Monday, after a weekend punctuated by new thunderous outings from the ex-president.
Nothing new under the sun of his political practice, certainly. Except that this time, Donald Trump shocks even his own camp, which is already more surprising.
“It’s missing a box”
The facts: on Saturday, during a meeting in Wisconsin, while discussing immigration issues, Donald Trump said: “Joe Biden has become mentally disabled. Kamala was born like that. She was born like that.”
Before adding: “If you think about it, well, only a mentally disabled person could have gotten our country to this point.”
Bis repeated the next day, Sunday, on the occasion of a new meeting, this time in Erie, Pennsylvania, another of these pivotal states capable of swinging this election: “Joe Biden has become mentally deficient. It’s sad. But honestly, I think she was born that way. There’s something wrong with Kamala. I don’t know what it is, but he he’s definitely missing a box. And you know what?
Republicans who raise their voices
Outings which obviously provoked general indignation and unanimous condemnation from the democratic camp, as well as from associations of disabled people. But the discomfort, anger and embarrassment were also perceptible among the Republicans, where several voices were raised firmly.
“Voters trust him to recover the economy and restore order at the borders: let him concentrate on these subjects”South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said on CNN. And to call on the candidate of whom she is an unwavering supporter to stop claiming that Kamala Harris is crazy, but to instead campaign by explaining why “his policies are crazy”.
And she was not the only one among the Republicans to suggest that the billionaire would do better to give another direction to his campaign.
Emancipate yourself “always more from political correctness”
Opinion shared by Larry Hogan, opponent of Donald Trump within his own party, who did not mince his words, going so far as to qualify the candidate’s latest remarks as remarks “insulting towards the vice-president, but also towards people with mental disabilities”.
“Even if this is his business, even if he is used to using ad hominem attacks against his opponents (he called Hillary Clinton all the names for example), this time , hearing these words, I was left on my butt”confided to us, stunned, this Monday, William Genieys, Montpellier academic and research director at the CNRS stationed at SciencesPo Paris.
For this political scientist and sociologist specializing in American society, “by going into this area, he is going to the end of his rhetoric, emancipating himself ever more from political correctness. He is perhaps also trying to associate Kamala Harris with the record of Joe Biden, who does not is not necessarily bad, but that the Americans do not completely approve of…”.
“Serious and counterproductive”
But, in all the cases and hypotheses put forward to attempt an explanation for this type of statement, “It remains serious, and, I think, counterproductive. It still seems like a desperate strategy. Because frankly, with whom could such comments about Kamala Harris be credible? Apart from her base, anyway completely galvanized…” s’interroge William Genieys.
According to whom, “Trump had already gone far by speaking in the middle of a debate about Haitians who eat dogs and cats. But here, by attacking Kamala Harris, he is also attacking mental illness in our societies, which can bring to mind very dark things. And, regarding Trump, we can ask ourselves if he is not losing control of his own strategy?
First elements of answers hoped for in the next surveys, which are already eagerly awaited.
