Dem Super PAC gives Kamala campaign warning against pushing Trump fascism messaging

A Democratic Super PAC is warning Vice President Kamala Harris to back away from her campaign’s recent messaging that former President Donald Trump is a fascist and dangerous authoritarian. Future Forward says emphasis on Trump being a potential dictator is bad politics in the last week of the presidential campaign, The New York Times reported Monday.

The Harris campaign and its surrogates picked up on the fascism talking points after Trump’s former White House chief of staff John Kelly told The Times that the former president “falls into the general definition of fascist, for sure” and also claimed that the former president had said Hitler accomplished some “good things.” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre also said that President Joe Biden believes Trump is a fascist.

But in an email sent to Democrats concerning effective campaign messaging, Future Forward said talking about Trump’s character and whether he is a fascist was not the best way to persuade voters to elect Harris. “Attacking Trump’s Fascism Is Not That Persuasive,” the email read. “‘Trump Is Exhausted’ Isn’t Working,” read another line.

The emails from the super PAC arrive at the Harris campaign office at least once a week and offer communications guidance based on Future Forward’s voter research. The group is suggesting that Harris' focus on her own perceived strengths, which Future Forward believes are her economic policies and promotion of abortion, areas where she could highlight contrasts with Trump. “Purely negative attacks on Trump’s character are less effective than contrast messages that include positive details about Kamala Harris’s plans to address the needs of everyday Americans,” the email read.

Chauncey McLean, the president of Future Forward, then issued instructions to The New York Times to not overemphasize the importance of the email. “Don’t over-read this,” he said. “This is just one of our regular emails sharing testing results from thousands of pieces of earned and social media content. It shows people that the most effective way of using Trump’s words and behavior is tying them to consequences in voters’ lives. That’s what Kamala Harris does every day by comparing her to-do list with his enemies list, for example.”

Jennifer O’Malley Dillon, Ms. Harris’s campaign chair, seemed to indicate on Sunday that the campaign won’t take the email or communications advice that seriously as she told MSNBC that repeating the criticism of people who have worked closely with Trump has a “real impact” on voters, The Times reported.

“We know anecdotally, we know from our research, when someone like John Kelly stands up and speaks about what it was like to serve under Donald Trump, speaks about how he clearly wants unchecked power,” she said. “The American people are not comfortable with that.”