During a rally over the weekend in Greensboro, North Carolina, Republican nominee Donald Trump tried to rile up the crowd with one of his favorite attacks: claiming that his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, never actually worked at McDonald’s. A supporter screamed out, “She worked on a corner!” comparing Harris to a prostitute. Trump laughed and remarked, “This place is amazing,” before adding, “Just remember it’s other people saying it—it’s not me.” It was an odd moment for a candidate facing a significant gender gap that could very well cost him, and his party, the election.
The interaction was also a striking contrast to another tense moment of the 2008 campaign. By October, the Republican nominee, Sen. John McCain, was contending with the reactionary, anti-establishment forces that had been unleashed by his running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. During a town hall in Lakeville, Minnesota, one of McCain’s supporters told him: “I can’t trust Obama. I have read about him, and he’s not, um, he’s an Arab.” In a moment of genuine frustration, the senator grabbed the microphone from her hand to say, “No, ma’am. He’s a decent family man [and] citizen that I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues, and that’s what the campaign’s all about.”
The “Lakeville Moment” and the “Greensboro Moment” capture just how much the Republican Party has transformed since the early 2000s. In 2024, there is no more pushback from up top. Indeed, very often the loudest voices in the crowd are just mimicking what they have seen on stage.
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