
Republican Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) warned his fellow Republicans not to sleep on Vice President Kamala Harris, who appears increasingly likely to be the Democratic Party’s choice in succeeding Joe Biden as president.
“Republicans, I worry, vastly underestimate Kamala Harris. They don’t think very highly of her. They don’t think she’s terribly bright. When you or I bring up Kamala Harris’ name in Republican circles, people laugh. It’s immediately a punchline,” Cruz said Monday on his podcast “Verdict with Ted Cruz.”
Cruz cautioned that it was far too early for Republicans to declare victory months before the election in a possible Trump-Vance win, pointing out Democrats and the media would be inclined to paint Harris as “historic.”
“I think people are underestimating what billions of dollars of free media, of the entire corrupt corporate media complex, pitching her as a combination of Mother Teresa, Oprah and Gandhi,” Cruz said.
“I still think Trump wins in November, but this is not a layup. It is not given.… If you’re a Democrat, what makes you nervous is chaos, and this much chaos 100 days out is scary. But you know what? Even more scary is going to an election where you’re almost certain to lose, which is where Biden was,” he continued.
The decision came Hours after President Biden said on X that he was getting out of the presidential race and endorsed Vice President Harris.
“My very first decision as the party nominee in 2020 was to pick Kamala Harris as my Vice President. And it’s been the best decision I’ve made. Today I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year. Democrats — it’s time to come together and beat Trump. Let’s do this,” Biden said in a follow-up social media post endorsing Harris.
Harris made her first public comments since Biden’s announcement on Monday, thanking him for his decades in government.
Even though Harris has yet to be officially nominated, she or any other potential candidate must be certified by the DNC next month.
Last week, the Republican Party nominated former President Trump with Senator JD Vance (R-OH) as his running mate for November’s general election.
Regarding the Republican National Convention, Cruz remarked, “I was very worried at the convention. I am afraid people were overconfident at the convention. There was an air of celebration. It was, ‘We’ve won. We’re on to victory. This is a landslide. Trump’s coming back in. We’ve got a huge Republican majority.'”
Cruz elaborated further saying, “In my view, and I was trying to say this, ‘Look, there’s a time for celebration. Celebrate after Election Day. Celebrate after we’ve won. Now is not the time for celebration. Now is the time for hard work.'”