Kamala Harris should remind debate watchers of Trump's historic failure: analysis

Vice President Kamala Harris should remind debate watchers of Donald Trump's greatest failure as president – and one of the major reasons he was not re-elected for a second term.

Democrats have effectively adopted vice presidential candidate Tim Walz's framing around Trump and his running mate J.D. Vance as "weird," and Bloomberg columnist Nia-Malika Henderson urged Harris to use her running mate's summation of the former president's response to the Covid pandemic that killed more than 400,000 Americans on his watch.

“He froze in the face of Covid, and our neighbors died because of it,” Walz said last month during a campaign appearance in Michigan, "and by doing nothing about Covid, he drove this economy into the ground.”

Reminding voters of that historic failure comes with risks, Henderson concedes, because many Americans prefer not to dwell on bad memories associated with the pandemic, and many still accuse Democrats of overreacting with safety measures in those early days.

ALSO READ: 'Bacon. Wind. Marco Rubio': New York Times Trump coverage spurs laughter from critics

"But 'getting over' Covid won’t be easy, given that it remains one of the top 10 leading causes of death, according the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention," Henderson wrote. "Trump’s approach to the pandemic doesn’t bode well for what he would do in a second term. While he pushed for a Covid vaccine as part of Operation Warp Speed, he sowed confusion about the vaccine’s effectiveness, spread conspiracy theories and consistently downplayed the seriousness of the virus."

Trump's misinformation proved especially deadly for his own supporters, with research showing pro-Trump counties had much higher death rates than those that backed president Joe Biden in 2020, and the nation never fully recovered from his early mishandling of the pandemic.

"He called it a hoax," Henderson wrote. "He said it would disappear. He said fewer tests would mean fewer cases. He called Dr. Anthony Fauci an idiot and praised quacks who were pushing unproven treatments for Covid. He dithered and delayed and people died as a result. Rather than having a national strategy, Trump deemed the federal government a mere 'backup' option for the states as they scrambled for ventilators, personal protective equipment and a system for testing and contact-tracing."

The former president claims credit for rescuing the economy and tens of millions of jobs, but Henderson said Harris must correct the record and remind voters that the pandemic was still raging the last time they voted for president in 2020 – when Trump was still in the White House.

"In her 2020 debate against Vice President Mike Pence, Harris’ first question was about Covid," Henderson wrote. "She said that Trump’s mishandling of the pandemic was the 'greatest failure of any presidential administration in the history of our country.' With thousands dying daily and Trump recommending bleach and ultraviolet light as a cure, the 2020 presidential election was a referendum on Covid and Trump’s competence."

"He treated the pandemic like it was a branding challenge, not a medical and economic catastrophe," Henderson added. "Democrats must remind voters of this, raising the specter of Trump at the helm again, spinning lies and doing nothing as another disaster unfolds."