Historian Niall Ferguson said Wednesday that Vice President Kamala Harris’ “joyous relaunch” of her political career stood in stark contrast to former President Trump’s discussion of substantive issues.
Harris picked up momentum in polls after Biden’s July 21 announcement that he would end his reelection bid, with the vice president currently holding a 1.5% lead over former President Donald Trump in a national head-to-head matchup, according to the RealClearPolitics average of polls conducted from July 31 to Aug. 18. Ferguson said the contrasting tones of the Harris and Trump campaigns were like the 2023 clash between the blockbuster movies “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer.” (RELATED: ‘When You Lose The Editorial Board Of The Washington Post’: Karl Rove Calls Harris’ First Policy Speech A ‘Disaster’)
“I was wondering why this election had started to feel familiar, and then watching the extraordinary joyous relaunch of Kamala Harris’ political career and turning from that to Donald Trump’s interview with Elon Musk, I suddenly realized, Kamala Harris has taken us into a Barbie world where everything is wonderful and there is no need for policies, because she’s just awesome,” Ferguson told Fox News host Martha MacCallum.
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“Remember in the opening of the Barbie movie, where everybody’s just saying how great she is. There is even a journalist who asks her, ‘Why are you so awesome?’” Ferguson continued. “That completely captures the mood of the Democratic National Convention: No difficult questions, no unscripted moments, everything will just be joy in Kamala Harris’ Barbie World, and then you turn to Donald Trump, and it’s pure Oppenheimer. ‘Musk asks him, ‘What are you worried about?’ He said, ‘I’m not worried about global warming, I’m worried about nuclear warming, I’m worried about World War III.’ Well, that is the Oppenheimer movie, isn’t it? I think these two moods pretty much echoed the movies of last year, that’s why it feels so strangely familiar.”
Harris has not given a sit-down interview or press conference since Biden ended his reelection bid. Ferguson compared one profile of Harris to propaganda from the Soviet-era newspaper Pravda.
“I think the question that Donald Trump keeps asking, ‘Are you better off today than you were four years ago,’ is a Ronald Reagan question that works very, very well in 2024 because the key issues, the ones he keeps hitting: illegal immigration, inflation and of course, the foreign-policy crises that we have seen over the last three and a half years, are the issues uppermost on many voters’ minds, particularly the immigration crisis, the southern border and the inflation that peaked in 2022,” Ferguson said.
“Although the inflation rate’s come down, the prices have not come down. That is what people notice, especially when they look at their grocery bill,” Ferguson continued. “One policy proposal that has come out of the otherwise totally vacuous Harris campaign so far, was an amazing medieval solution, which was to fine food retailers for price gouging. That’s an idea that’s been tried and has failed multiple times, most notably in the 1970s.” (RELATED: ‘I’m Going To Move On’: Harris Faulkner Spars With Liberal Guest Over Vice President’s ‘Press Blunders’)
Harris proposed allowing the Federal Trade Commission to impose “harsh penalties” for “price gouging” by grocery stores during a Friday speech in North Carolina.
“So, I think on substance, the Harris campaign has a major problem, it is very hard for her to dissociate herself from the migration error, the inflation error and the many, many foreign policy mistakes,” Ferguson said. “And Trump asking, ‘Are you better off today than you were four years ago,’ is a great question.”
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