The end is in sight. With just a week and a half left before the election day, the two presidential campaigns are executing their stretch-run strategies. For Donald Trump, that means doing Joe Rogan's top-rated podcast while continuing to barnstorm the country. As for Kamala Harris, she's decided to take time off and shout about Hitler a lot.
That decision hasn't exactly been paying dividends. On Friday, CNN released its final poll of the cycle showing Trump and Harris tied nationally. If the former president's strong Electoral College advantage holds, he's firmly in the driver's seat, and none of this is lost on Democratic Party insiders.
According to Axios, there is growing belief behind the scenes that Harris is going to lose.
A growing number of top Democrats tell us privately they feel Vice President Harris will lose — even though polls show a coin-toss finish 11 days from now.
Why it matters: Democrats admit they tend to be hand-wringing, bed-wetting, doomsdayers. But what's striking is how our private conversations with Democrats inside and outside her campaign reveal broad concern that little she does, says — or tries — seems to move the needle.
Let me stop there because I would argue Harris is moving the needle. The problem is that she's moving it in the wrong direction. Every time she does an interview or gives a presser, she reminds American voters of exactly why she has no business being the Democrat nominee, much less becoming President of the United States.
In some ways, Harris' problem is similar to what ultimately took down President Joe Biden. As his re-election effort floundered, his handlers decided the best course of action was to have him do more events. That only served to further expose his senility, culminating in an ill-conceived debate challenge to Donald Trump, and we all know how that ended.
Likewise, the more Harris appears in public and opens her mouth, the worse she looks to voters. There's no easy way for her campaign to navigate that. If they lock her away, she loses the initiative. If they don't, she continues to sink herself. That Harris is completely unaware of how much of a liability she is only makes it worse.
To say Democrats are desperate is an understatement. Want proof? Read this excerpt.
The big picture: A common gripe among high-level Dems is that Harris does a nice job explaining why people shouldn't vote for Trump — but struggles to crisply explain why they should vote for her. In other words, she's a strong prosecutor — but struggles as a public defender.
- Democratic insiders loved a line Harris used in the CNN town hall on Wednesday night, and sharpened Thursday night outside Atlanta in Clarkston, Georgia: "Just imagine the Oval Office in three months. ... It's either Donald Trump in there stewing — stewing! — over his enemies list, or me, working for you, checking off my to-do list." The campaign even socialized a 15-point "Kamala Harris' to-do list."
- "Better late than never," a top Democrat told us. Another leading Democrat said: "It's good. We're not dead yet."
If that "top Democrat" really thinks that lame line delivered to a few million watchers on CNN is going to change the game, I've got news for them. Never mind that it's immediately apparent to most voters how hypocritical it is. Only one major-party nominee is currently trying to jail their political opponent, and her name is Kamala Harris. As to her "to-do list," she has no new ideas and is simply seeking to rehash Biden's presidency.
I don't know what will happen on November 5th, but Democrats are right to be worried. The current polling data shows Trump in his strongest position ever, far outpacing where he was at this point in 2016 and 2020. Perhaps all the past polling issues have been fixed, and it'll be Harris who ended up being underestimated instead of Trump, but Democrats clearly don't think that's what's happening, and you can sense it in every hand-wringing piece put out by the press.