As the race for the November election reaches a pivotal moment for both presidential candidates, with Vice President Kamala Harris set to speak at the Democratic National Convention Thursday in an address to her growing count of supporters, and Donald Trump rallying in the face of her increasing popularity, an ally of the former president has warned him that his ‘showman’ persona will hurt his chances of getting elected.
In an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-SC, warned that Trump could lose the election if he doesn’t shift his focus to policy in his campaign and stop making personal attacks on Harris.
“His policies are good for America, and if you have a policy debate for president, he wins. But Donald Trump the provocateur, or the showman, may not win this election,” Graham said while speaking to moderator Kristin Welker. “I’m looking for Trump to show up in the last 80 days to define what he will do for our country. That’s what I would focus on, policy. Policy is the key to the White House.”
This warning is a considerable move for Graham, who has been a consistent supporter of Trump in his reelection campaign, and was one of the first in the party to come around and endorse the former president again after many Republicans had dismissed him following the January 6 riot at the Capitol.
Graham, like many others on Capitol Hill, may be beginning to feel the pressures of potentially losing or gaining his party’s majority in Congress, a matter that hangs over both Democrats’ and Republicans’ heads. Currently, Democrats hold a one-vote majority in the Senate, while Republicans hold just a slightly larger margin in the House of Representatives.
According to the latest average national polls collated by FiveThirtyEight, Harris hold a 2.9-point lead over Trump. While the race remains tight, Harris has on average maintained a slight margin ahead of Trump in recent polling.
In terms of popularity, two separate surveys administered to Americans asking whether or not they had a favorable opinion of Trump or Harris found that 47.3% had an unfavorable opinion on Harris while 44.9% had a favorable one, and 52.4% were unfavorable of Trump while 43% were favorable of him.
Graham’s cautionary statement to Trump comes as the DNC kicked off yesterday in Chicago, during which Democratic leaders such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Hillary Clinton, President Joe Biden took the stage last night ahead of Harris’ Thursday speech to endorse her capabilities, asserting her policies will be in favor of working class Americans.
