Everyone knew that Sen. Kamala Harris was a frontrunner to get the nod as Joe Biden’s running mate; everyone, Frida Ghitis writes, except President Donald Trump and his brain trust of loyalists and paid staffers, who seemed unsure how to react.
Frida Ghitis, a former CNN producer and correspondent, is a world affairs columnist. She is a frequent opinion contributor to CNN, a contributing columnist to The Washington Post and a columnist for World Politics Review. Follow her on Twitter @fridaghitis. The opinions expressed in this commentary are her own. Read more opinion on CNN. Everyone knew that Sen. Kamala Harris was a frontrunner to get the nod as Joe Biden’s running mate; everyone, it seems, except President Donald Trump and his brain trust of loyalists and paid staffers. How could they have been this unprepared? Harris had spent months at or near the lead in just about every analysis of who made the most sense as a VP choice for former vice president Joe Biden. That’s why you would have expected Trump and his campaign to roll out a carefully-crafted reaction the moment Biden made the announcement. Frida Ghitis You would have been wrong. The news has thrown Trump visibly off balance, and sent his campaign flailing just as badly. Even his chorus of cheerleaders at Fox News is having trouble deciding what to make of Harris — further evidence of what a smart decision Biden made. Read More At the White House podium shortly after Biden’s Tuesday announcement, the President looked downright perplexed. How could Biden choose someone who wasn’t nice to him during the primary debates? Trump has used that sophisticated criterion — who’s nice to him — as justification for praising some of the world’s worst dictators. Harris, Trump said, is «nasty.» He described her as «the meanest, the most horrible, most disrespectful of anybody in the U. S. Senate.» The Trump campaign lifted that stirring quote, verbatim, and sent it out in a fundraising appeal. But in case the prospect of having a mean and disrespectful vice president wasn’t persuasive, the campaign held a conference call with reporters, seeking to cast an ominous image of the newly-elevated Harris.
