What Kamala Harris is doing right — and wrong — leading up to Election Day, according to a former press secretary. Jen Psaki

Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign is pretty much focused on the right strategy right now, Psaki, currently host of MSNBC Inside with Jen Psaki, told Assets in an interview on Wednesday. Namely, to appeal to elusive, undecided voters.

The Harris team “is working to convert, persuade and convince voters who may not have made a final decision,” Psaki said. One such attempt in this direction was the Democratic nominee’s recent series of campaign events with Liz Cheney, aimed at galvanizing never-Trump Republicans, and especially women.

One potentially surprising obstacle: Harris is not Biden, and Biden remains “very popular with many, many Democrats.”

The president’s decision this summer to end his campaign only made him more popular, Psaki said. “He is very popular with older white voters, a group of voters [Harris] needs to continue to expand their support base.”

Each candidate should not only focus in the weeks leading up to Election Day on mobilizing their own base and mobilizing people to show up at the ballot box — although that is certainly “always a big message,” she added.

The core of Harris’s concern in these crucial final days is to make it clear to Biden lovers out there – and there are many in the Democratic Party, Psaki said – that she values ​​and respects her predecessor and that she is honored feels his potential to be a successor.

But she needs to toe the line and also express that she will “take a different path in some areas,” Psaki said. “I think it’s a difficult path, but it’s definitely doable.”

Courting the Republicans who were never Trump

Harris “basically says to people, ‘You’re invited to this party.’ We want you to be a part of this,’” Psaki said. “This to me is a recognition that in order to win, you have to expand the base of the electorate.”

There is another factor that the Harris campaign should keep a close eye on, Psaki added. Aside from being incredibly bombastic and spontaneous, Trump is still something of an “incumbent.” This advantage makes it even less likely to be underestimated.

“He’s a former president; He has a high level of support, which means there are people who will support him even if, as he would say, he shoots someone on Fifth Avenue,” Psaki said. “It bends the mind – I think we can all acknowledge that – but he has that base of support.”

That base is largely made up of people who, she observed, feel “forgotten, disappointed and dissatisfied with the government.” “And Trump has tapped into that and talked about it pretty consistently since he came up that elevator.”

Psaki claims Trump isn’t really fighting for these people: people “who live paycheck to paycheck” and those who are “disappointed with the system.” Trump also benefited from a “huge amount of disinformation.”

Still, “sometimes people forget that he is a former president,” she said. “He was the leader of the Republican Party. This has been going on for almost a decade and there is a base of support that comes with it.”

She is making a name for herself

Everyone across parties agrees on one thing: there is no precedent for the current situation. This is one of the biggest challenges for Harris in her fight against Trump, said Psaki, “even though Harris has far better policies.”

Then there’s the thorny question of carrying on the best of Biden’s legacy while carving out Harris’ own identity with a newer, younger approach. “She needs to be aware of it [she] was also his vice president – ​​is still his vice president,” Psaki said. “She can’t rely on the things they’ve done together because that’s part of her qualifications. But it is not a copy, because events in the world and problems that people deal with and circumstances and even your own positions evolve.”

Let’s take gay marriage as an example. “Barack Obama wasn’t open to gay marriage; Joe Biden wasn’t there in the first one either [Obama] term,” Psaki said. “That has changed.”

A new identity

Then, of course, there is Harris’ identity as a black woman who is nearly 20 years younger than the president. “She inherently comes to every discussion and debate from a different perspective,” Psaki said. “And that’s important, as someone who sat at a table where sometimes, just as a woman, I look different than the other people at the table. That perspective is important, and I think it’s important for people to remember that.”

But the political questions could prove to be a constant thorn in Harris’s side. “As sitting vice president, I think there is a great desire at the technical level to hear from and understand people who are very disappointed,” Psaki said. In particular: Harris’ plans regarding the Israeli-Palestinian catastrophe.

“Negotiations are underway on how to bring about a ceasefire to end the conflict, the war and the suffering in Israel and Gaza,” Psaki said. But Harris cannot take a different position than Biden. “She is currently the acting vice president. She’s not just someone who puts the president in the primaries. So that’s a challenge.”