Tom Cotton, Lindsey Graham and Ron DeSantis try to paint Harris, a centrist Democrat, as having far-left politics<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Republicans took to the airwaves on Sunday to criticize a surging Kamala Harris<\/a>, calling the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee a \u201cdangerous liberal\u201d as US conservatives\u2019 lines of attack on the vice-president began to solidify.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In appearances across CNN and Fox News, the senior Republican figures Tom Cotton, Lindsey Graham and the former presidential candidate Ron DeSantis each attempted to paint Harris \u2013 who is typically seen as a centrist Democrat \u2013 as having far-left politics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Those remarks came after Trump sought to insult Harris<\/a> at a rally on Friday night. The ex-president appeared to deliberately mispronounce<\/a> Harris\u2019s first name, claimed she is \u201cthe most incompetent, unpopular and far-left vice-president in American history\u201d and stated: \u201cShe was a bum three weeks ago.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Speaking to CNN\u2019s State of the Union<\/a> on Sunday, Cotton, a US senator from Arkansas, said: \u201cFor four years things were good\u201d during Trump\u2019s presidency. He argued that after Joe Biden took the White House in 2020 with Harris as his running mate, \u201ceverything has gone to hell\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAnd it will be much worse under Kamala Harris<\/a>,\u201d Cotton said. \u201cJust look at her record. She wants to ban private health insurance, she wants to ban fossil fuel production, she wants to ban guns.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2019, Harris did propose a universal healthcare plan during her run for president. But the plan did not propose<\/a> eliminating private health insurance. Harris has not said that she wants to ban fossil fuel production. And it is untrue that Harris wants to ban all guns, although she has said<\/a> high-capacity rifles \u2013 used in many US mass shootings \u2013 should be banned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Cotton added: \u201cKamala Harris is a dangerous liberal. She makes Joe Biden look competent and moderate by contrast.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In an interview with CBS\u2019s Face the Nation<\/a> show, the South Carolina US senator Graham also attacked Harris as being too liberal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf you expect vice-president Harris to change the course we\u2019re on as a nation, you\u2019re going to be sadly disappointed,\u201d Graham said of the candidate endorsed by Biden after he halted his re-election campaign on 21 July.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cShe is the most liberal senator in the United States Senate. There is no liberal horse that she has chosen not to ride. She sponsored the Green New Deal<\/a> and Medicare for all. At the end of the day recasting her as something she\u2019s not \u2013 she\u2019s a nice person but she\u2019s incredibly liberal. I mean, major league liberal,\u201d Graham said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A noted military hawk, Graham attempted to tie Harris to Biden\u2019s policies in the Middle East.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhen it comes to Iran, Biden and Harris have been a colossal failure in terms of controlling the Ayatollah. They\u2019ve enriched him and Israel is paying the price,\u201d Graham said. He suggested that Iran could \u201csprint to a nuclear weapon\u201d in the four months leading up to the US election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Graham was asked about JD Vance\u2019s characterization<\/a> of Harris and others as \u201cchildless cat ladies who are miserable in their own lives\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis idea of trying to marginalize JD and make him some kind of bad person is not going to work, because he\u2019s not a bad person \u2013 he\u2019s a good person,\u201d Graham said. The scrutiny over Vance comes as some Republicans are said to be concerned<\/a> about Trump having selected him to be his running mate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n DeSantis<\/a>, the Florida governor who became locked in a fierce battle with Trump as the pair ran for the Republican presidential nomination, claimed that \u201cthe entrenched corporate media\u201d will attempt to \u201crewrite history\u201d regarding Harris.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThey\u2019re going to try to present her as something she\u2019s just not,\u201d DeSantis told Fox News\u2019<\/a>s Sunday Morning Futures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cShe owns all the policies. She\u2019s not going to be able to distance herself from them, and most Americans think that this country\u2019s going in the wrong direction.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n DeSantis did concede that Republicans<\/a> would have preferred to run against Biden, who had generally fallen several points behind Trump in opinion polls before Harris\u2019s introduction into the race essentially reset it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou take somebody like Harris, who\u2019s not exactly lighting the world on fire \u2013 but Biden makes her look like Socrates just because we\u2019re so used to him not even being able to do anything,\u201d DeSantis said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Byron Donalds, the Republican congressman for Florida who had been rumored to be a potential Trump running mate, joined in the criticism of Harris on Sunday as Republicans appeared to solidify around the idea of painting her as an extreme liberal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cShe wanted Medicaid for all, which would have cost our country easily $100tn. She wanted the Green New Deal, the massive old Green New Deal, not the scaled down version they were able to get through Congress,\u201d Donalds told Sunday Morning Futures<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Donalds, who has previously stressed the need<\/a> to \u201cunite this country\u201d, also took aim at Roy Cooper, the governor of North Carolina, and Mark Kelly, the senator from Arizona. Both men are rumored to be potential Harris running mates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cKnowing both of those gentlemen, they\u2019re both boring and nobody\u2019s really going to care. But at the end of the day, this is about Kamala Harris\u2019s terrible record versus a record of success from Donald Trump<\/a>,\u201d Donalds said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n