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1 week ago
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Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign is rolling out a debate day ad to get under former President Donald Trump's skin.
It features former President Barack Obama - who Trump despises - suggesting that the Republican's 'obsession with crowd size' has a deeper meaning.
The campaign spot uses a clip from Obama's Democratic National Convention speech in which the former president made a hand gesture insinuating there was a size issue with Trump's you-know-what.
'This weird obsession with crowd sizes,' Obama said, earning screams and cheers from the DNC crowd as he moved his hands back and forth together. 'It just goes on and on and on.'
From there, the ad flashes to empty stands at a Trump rally, as the sound of crickets and someone loudly yawning plays. It then shows a packed house for Harris, with Obama saying, 'America's ready for a new chapter. We are ready for a President Kamala Harris.'
A new ad from Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign, which debuted on debate day, shows former President Barack Obama gesturing at the Democratic National Convention suggesting that former President Donald Trump's obsession with crowd size has deeper meaning
Trump has fumed over the fact that Harris has attracted Obama-like crowds - a major departure from the sparsely populated, COVID-conscious events President Joe Biden held during his 2020 run against the Republican.
During last month's Democratic National Convention, Harris trolled Trump by filling the Fiserv Forum - the venue of the July Republican Natioanal Convention - with around 15,000 of her supporters in Milwaukee, while there was also a full house cheering on the Democrats at the convention's Chicago locale.
As for the below-the-belt attack, Obama isn't the first politician to go in that direction.
During Trump's first presidential run in 2016, GOP rival Sen. Marco Rubio went there in a last-ditch effort to peel support away from the real estate developer in the Republican primary.
'And you know what they say about men with small hands?' Rubio said at one campaign stop.
He paused leaving supporters wondering if he was calling attention to the size of something else.
'You can't trust them, you can't trust them,' the Florida senator then said.
At one point the ad flashes to empty seats at a Trump rally. Trump has complained about Vice President Kamala Harris drawing big crowds, especially after the small, COVID-conscious events President Joe Biden held during his successful 2020 run against Trump
During the Harris campaign's 30-second spot, one shot shows just Trump's hand. Former rival, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio had mocked Trump's hand size, as did former Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter
During the Harris campaign's 30-second spot, one shot shows just Trump's hand.
Mocking Trump's hand size dates back to the 1980s, with now former Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter referring to Trump in a 1988 issue of Spy magazine as a 'short-fingered vulgarian.'
Carter resurrected the insult in an October 2015 editor's letter in Vanity Fair, telling readers that the then-first time presidential hopeful 'has skin of gossamer.'
'To this day, I recieve the occasional envelope from Trump. There is always a photo of him - generally a tear sheet from a magazine. On all of them he has circles his hand in gold Sharpie in a valiant effort to highlight the length of his fingers,' wrote Carter, now the co-editor of Air Mail.
'I almost feel sorry for the poor fellow because, to me, the fingers still look abnormally stubby,' the veteran magazine editor concluded.
English (US)