BETHLEHEM, Pa. — Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) came out swinging against Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris during a Tuesday night Zoom call with Pennsylvania grassroots organizers — and accusing her campaign of having “no substance.”
“She’s not comatose like Joe Biden, but what are her policies?” Donalds asked rhetorically, repeatedly criticizing Vice President Harris, 59, and running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, 60. for refusing to take questions from the media.
“There’s no substance to the Harris-Walz campaign,” the 45-year-old second-term Florida congressman said.
As part of former President Donald Trump’s “Trump Force 47” initiative, volunteers logged onto the call to hear from Donalds and Pennsylvania GOP chairman Lawrence Tabas, who encouraged organizers — known as “captains” — to focus on framing the issues.
“We have the right messages,” Tabas said. “The American people are facing one of the worst economies, they’re worried about living paycheck to paycheck.”
Donalds used the opportunity to challenge how issues such as abortion and “threats to democracy” are often framed by Democrats.
According to Donalds, Harris’ campaign is the “biggest threat to democracy” because she became her party’s nominee without winning a single primary vote.
President Biden, 81, would still be the Democratic nominee if his policies were effective, Donalds said.
He added that Republicans’ messaging on the abortion issue should become less defensive.
“Donald Trump has given us the ability to choose our own destiny,” he told organizers to tell voters when discussing the hot-button issue.
“Do you think that’s a good thing or a bad thing?”
The lawmaker also spoke about the need to turn out Pennsylvanians for Trump, 78, who have not voted in multiple years or even decades, a demographic the former president successfully energized in 2016.
Many of these voters live in an area Donalds called “the T” — which describes the geographic shape of the state’s rural, red-leaning areas outside of Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and the Lehigh Valley.
Before Trump chose Ohio Sen. JD Vance as his running mate, Donalds was among several high-profile Republicans who exchanged some form of vice presidential vetting documents with his campaign, a source told The Post in June.
