Speaker of the House Mike Johnson.

Republican leaders are warning party members against using overtly racist and sexist attacks against Vice President Kamala Harris, as they and former President Donald Trump 's campaign scramble to adjust to the reality of a new Democratic rival less than four months before Election Day.

At a closed-door meeting of House Republicans on Tuesday, National Republican Congressional Committee chairman Richard Hudson, R-N.C., urged lawmakers to stick to criticizing Harris for her role in Biden-Harris administration policies.

“This election will be about policies and not personalities,” House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters after the meeting.

“This is not personal with regard to Kamala Harris,” he added, "and her ethnicity or her gender have nothing to do with this whatsoever.”

The warnings point to the new risks for Republicans in running against a Democrat who would become the first woman, first Black woman and first person of South Asian decent to win the White House. Trump, in particular, has a history of racist and misogynistic attacks that could turn off key groups of swing voters, including suburban women, as well as voters of color and younger people Trump's campaign has been courting.

The admonitions came after some members and Trump allies began to cast Harris, a former district attorney, attorney general and senator, as a “DEI” hire — a reference to diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.

“Intellectually, just really kind of the bottom of the barrel,” Wyoming Rep. Harriet Hageman said in a TV interview. “I think she was a DEI hire. And I think that that’s what we’re seeing and I just don’t think that they have anybody else.”

Since Biden announced he was exiting the campaign, Republicans have rolled out a long list of attack lines against Harris, including trying to tie her to the most unpopular Biden policies and his handling of the economy and the Southern border. Trump campaign officials and other Republicans have accused Harris of being complicit in a cover-up of Biden's health issues, and they have been mining her record as a prosecutor in California as they try to paint her as soft on crime.

Johnson said both Trump and Harris have records in White House policy and said voters can compare how families were doing under the Trump administration with how they’re doing now under Biden.

“She is the co-owner, co-author, co-conspirator in all the policies that got us into the mess,” Johnson said.

Biden announced Sunday that he was withdrawing from the race. In a memo on the state of the race Tuesday, Trump campaign pollster Tony Fabrizio argued the fundamentals of the campaign had not changed now that Harris appears increasingly likely to be the Democratic nominee.

“The Democrats deposing one Nominee for another does NOT change voters discontent over the economy, inflation, crime, the open border, housing costs not to mention concern over two foreign wars,” he wrote. “As importantly, voters will also learn about Harris’ dangerously liberal record before becoming Biden’s partner."

In similar messaging, Hudson told members at the Tuesday meeting that the NRCC is focusing on how Harris is even more progressive than Biden and essentially “owns” all the administration's policies, according to a person familiar with the conversation and granted anonymity to discuss it.

Sen. Steve Daines, who chairs the National Republican Senatorial Committee, echoed that criticism, calling Harris “too liberal.”

“She’s not an Irish Catholic kid who grew up in Scranton. She’s a San Francisco liberal,” Daines said.

Trump offered a similar argument in call with reporters Tuesday.

“She’s the same as Biden but much more radical. She’s a radical left person and this country doesn’t want a radical left person to destroy it. She’s far more radical than he is," he said.

“So I think she should be easier than Biden because he was slightly more mainstream, but not much," he added.

Later, in an interview on Newsmax, Trump claimed Harris “destroyed the city of San Francisco," though she left her job as district attorney there in 2011, and called her “the worst at everything."

“Kamala Harris is just as weak, failed and incompetent as Joe Biden — and she’s also dangerously liberal," the Trump campaign said in a statement. “Not only does Kamala need to defend her support of Joe Biden’s failed agenda over the past four years, she also needs to answer for her own terrible weak-on-crime record in California.”

Trump has a long history of launching particularly caustic and personal attacks against women, from former Fox News host Megyn Kelly to his 2016 primary opponent Carly Fiorina to New York Attorney General Letitia James, who successfully sued him and his business for fraud.

In a sign of what could come, Trump in a Fourth of July message on his Truth Social network took a jab at Harris' poor performance in the 2020 Democratic primary, adding “that doesn’t mean she’s not a ‘highly talented’ politician! Just ask her Mentor, the Great Willie Brown of San Francisco.” Harris dated Brown in the mid-1990s.

Strong and intelligent women who attack him seem to get especially under Trump's skin, said Stephanie Grisham, a 2016 campaign aide who served for a time as Trump's White House press secretary, before breaking with him after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

“She’s going to get a real rise out of him," predicted Grisham, noting that when Trump is attacked, he “punches 1,000 times harder. He’s not going to be able to help himself.”

When it comes to women, she added: “His go-to is to attack looks and to call women dumb. It’s his go-to and I don’t expect this to be any different."

Rep. Maxine Waters of California, who is a prominent member of the Congressional Black Caucus and was among the early Democrats to confront Trump, said she is well-braced for what’s ahead as the Republicans turn the campaign toward Harris.

“The first thing I think about are the attacks that are going to come from the Trump, the MAGA right wing — that have already started,” Waters told the AP. “They’re going to be nasty they’re going to be bad.”

She predicted that approach might backfire on Trump.

“The danger is that he’s so arrogant and egotistical that he’s going to step on women and it’s going to backfire,” she said.

The dynamics could be heightened on the debate stage, if Trump goes through with debating Harris, as he said Thursday he would.

Republican pollster Neil Newhouse said Trump was unlikely to debate Harris in the same way he would debate Biden — or the same way he debated another female rival, Democrat Hillary Clinton, in 2016.

“I don't think Trump can approach a debate against Kamala Harris with the same tone that he approached the debate with Hillary Clinton. Kamala Harris does not have the negatives that Hillary had and she is a relatively new political face," he said. “Caution might be warranted.”

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It took less than 24 hours for the attacks on Kamala Harris to get deeply sexist and extremely ugly

• VP Kamala Harris has faced a slew of sexist and racist attacks after Biden endorsed her.

• GOP members are ripping into Harris' race, gender, and immigrant background.

• Experts say such attacks are to be expected in a race like this.

It didn't take long for Vice President Kamala Harris to be hit with a barrage of sexist and racist attacks after President Joe Biden endorsed her for the presidential run.

After ripping into Biden by calling him old, senile, and mentally incapable of running for reelection, the GOP is now attacking Harris for being ethnically Black and South Asian, and also for just being a woman.

The GOP is ripping into her race, calling her a "DEI hire"

Speaking to CNN on Monday, Rep. Tim Burchett of Tennessee said he was "100 percent" sure Harris was a mediocre "DEI hire."

And Rep. Glenn Grothman of Wisconsin said he thought the Democratic Party only backed Harris "because of her ethnic background."

Others, like conservative commentator Paul Ingrassia, are criticizing her identity as a child of immigrant parents.

Ingrassia erroneously claimed that Harris was not a "natural-born citizen" and shouldn't be allowed to run for the top ticket. Harris was born in Oakland, California, making her a natural-born citizen and eligible to run for the presidency.

Harris is also facing a barrage of sexist attacks

Some in the GOP are also baselessly accusing Harris of sleeping her way to the top.

Far-right blogger and Trump ally Laura Loomer leveled groundless accusations at Harris, accusing her of being "an escort," among other unsubstantiated allegations. Loomer also accused Harris of having an illicit relationship with Willie Brown, the former mayor of San Francisco.

Reuters fact-checked a photo of Harris and Brown in 2020, reporting that Brown had been separated from his wife for over a decade when Harris dated him in the mid-1990s.

Loomer also implied that Harris had an inappropriate relationship with TV host and actor Montel Williams, prompting Williams to defend Harris on X.

To be sure, race- and gender-driven attacks on Harris are not new. For instance, in 2021, then-Senate candidate JD Vance branded her as being part of a group of "childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives."

This was despite the fact that she is the stepmother of two children.

And Jackson Lahmeyer, who founded the "Pastors for Trump" movement, wrote on X on July 4: "Both Joe + the Ho gotta go!"

He also called Harris a "whore" and "harlot" while replying to comments on his post.

Experts say such attacks are to be expected in a presidential race this brutal

Political experts told BI they expected Trump and his party to launch these racist and personal attacks, and added this onslaught is likely to get more intense as the race progresses.

"America has a deep history of attacks being on the basis of race, so it is not unexpected," said Thomas Hollihan, a professor of communication at USC Annenberg.

But these attacks, he said, will have little effect on undecided voters and will only help galvanize the GOP's existing base.

Costas Panagopoulos, a political science professor from Northeastern University, echoed this sentiment.

"As an African and Asian American woman, Vice President Harris is likely to face a barrage of subtle and overt racist and sexist attacks in this race, but many voters will reject these and be personally offended by them," he said.

"Americans expect better," Panagopoulos added.

Although Hillary Clinton also bore the brunt of sexist attacks as a female presidential candidate in 2016, the experts told BI that Harris is going to have it much worse.

"The attacks on Kamala Harris likely will be more vicious because she is not white, and there are just over 100 days before the election, " said Jonathan Aronson, a communication and international relations professor from USC Annenberg.

"Attacks on Hillary stretched over many years," he said.

Hollihan said as well that he thought the attacks on Harris would be more severe than they were for Clinton, because "they are animated by race and gender."

Representatives for Harris did not immediately respond to a request for comment

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House GOP Leaders to Members: Please Stop Talking About Kamala Harris’ Race

Leaders of the House Republican caucus scolded members on Tuesday after several representatives went off-script to attack Vice President Kamala Harris on the basis of her race and gender, according to multiple reports.

Rep. Richard Hudson (R-NC), the chair of House National Republican Campaign Committee (NRCC), was one of the leaders who led the closed-door meeting, during which he and others said that attacks on Harris should instead focus on her political record.

He suggested that members avoid phrases such as “DEI pick,” a reference to “diversity, equity and inclusion” programs meant to imply that Harris has only risen to her current level of success due to her race or gender.

“This should not be about personalities. It should be about policy. And we have a record to compare,” House Speaker Mike Johnson told Politico following the Tuesday meeting.

A number of congresspeople have made similar attacks in recent days, including many during televised interviews.

Rep. Glenn Grothman (R-WI) caught flak on Sunday for saying “a lot of Democrats feel they have to stick with her because of her ethnic background.”

Rep. Harriet Hageman (R-WY) also said during an interview that Harris is “intellectually, just really kind of the bottom of the barrel,” adding that she thinks the vice president “was a DEI hire.”

Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) also made a similar comment on Monday, telling CNN political reporter Manu Raju that Harris was a “DEI vice president”—and that President Joe Biden had “skipped over” others when he selected her as his running mate. “What about white females? What about any other group?” he added.

During a press conference on Tuesday, Raju pressed Johnson on what he thought of Burchett’s comments.

“This is not personal with regard to Kamala Harris and her ethnicity or her gender have nothing to do with this whatsoever,” he replied.

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AOC and lawmakers of color reveal concerns about Kamala Harris facing racist and sexist attacks

Democratic female lawmakers of color have revealed they are worried about Vice President Kamala Harris facing racist and misogynistic attacks after she all but became the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.

President Joe Biden endorsed Harris to be the Democratic nominee for president after he announced that he was stepping down from the race on Sunday.

Since then, Harris has received overwhelming support from nearly every faction of the Democratic Party and appears to have clinched enough delegates to become the presumptive party nominee.

But some Democrats fear that she will be subjected to racist and sexist attacks given she would be the first Black and Indian woman to become the presidential nominee of a major party.

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who previously revealed her fears that the same forces that wanted to muscle out Biden would also push out Harris, said that Democrats and the electorate should be aware in general about such attacks.

“As a an elected official, who is a prominent woman of color, I've seen a lot,” she told The Independent.

“And I know that the vice president has seen a lot and so it's going to be very important that I think we brace ourselves for some of the unfair misogynistic, and racial undertones, overtones, explicit attacks on implicit attacks that she may be subjected to, and it's important for us to keep our eyes open for what is fair, but also what is unfair.”

Representative Nikema Williams of Georgia, like Harris, is a member of the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, one of the historically Black “Divine Nine” Greek-letter organizations.

“I'm a black woman serving in this body of Congress and so we all know what comes with this work,” Williams, who is also the chairwoman of the Georgia Democratic Party, told The Independent.

“And we are very public facing but what we know is we have to continue to do the work and we have to be prepared on day one, which she already is my grandma taught me if you stay ready, you'll be ready.”

Republicans for their part have brushed off accusastions they might be racist or sexist.

During a rally in Middletown, Ohio, on Monday, Senator JD Vance, former president Donald Trump’s running mate, brushed off accusations of racism.

“It is the weirdest thing, Democrats believe it is racist to believe – well, they say it’s racist to do anything,” he said. “I had a Diet Mountain Dew today and one yesterday, I’m sure they’re going to call that racist.”

Later that day, Vance went further on the attack invoking the idea of Black people requiring government assistance.

“What the hell have you done other than collect a government check for the past 20 years,” he said when campaigning in Virginia.

Harris in the past has been subject to racist attacks, such as when she was accused of being ineligible for the presidency because her parents were both immigrants – a false narrative pushed by former Trump lawyer John Eastman in 2020 after Biden selected Harris as his running mate.

Meanwhile, others have scrutinized her dating life, including her brief time dating Willie Brown, the former mayor of San Francisco.

Indeed, Representative Tim Burchett of Tennessee invoked the term “diversity, equity and inclusion” when speaking about Harris in an interview with CNN.

“When you go down that route, you take mediocrity, and that’s what they have now as a vice president,” he said. “100 per cent. She was a DEI hire.”

Congressional Black Caucus Chairman Steven Horsford of Nevada told The Independent that Democrats needed to be prepared for racist attacks against Harris.

“The representative from Tennessee some some very disparaging comments earlier today,” he said. “That's the type of divisive, discriminatory racist rhetoric that needs to end there are people who want to divide our country, while vice president Harris and Democrats are focused on bringing us together.”

Harris has pledged she will continue to unite the Democratic Party after Biden’s decision to not run for re-election amid questions about his capabilities following his disastrous debate performance last month.

On Tuesday, she will travel to Milwaukee for her first official campaign stop as a 2024 presidential candidate.

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