'Compare and contrast': Ex-GOP insider explains why Trump's attacks on Harris don't land

Former President Donald Trump has struggled so far to land a compelling line of attack against Vice President Kamala Harris, and former Republican insider David Frum has a theory about why.

Writing on X, Frum argues that some of the negative attacks Republicans have thrown at Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz would have had more of an impact if not for the fact that the alternative the GOP is offering is former President Donald Trump.

"The problem Republicans have is that every election is a compare and contrast," he writes. "And they overwhelmingly re-nominated a candidate who... entered politics by propagandizing a defamatory 'birther' conspiracy theory that was not only steeped in racism but also obviously crazy and stupid; accepted the help of Russian spy agencies to win the presidency in 2016; directed tens of millions of taxpayer and foreign government money to his own businesses."

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Frum continued to list several other outrages that occurred during Trump's presidency, capped off by his actions after losing the 2020 election in which he "encouraged supporters to intimidate election workers who wouldn't comply with his schemes, then organized a conspiracy to overturn the lawful result, and when that failed, turned to outright violence on January 6, 2021."

In addition to all of the things Trump did while in office, Frum added that the GOP nominee is "a draft-dodger and lifelong deadbeat, fraudster, and confessed serial sex abuser."

That led to him delivering the coup de grâce against the former president.

"In that environment, its tough to get a hearing for negatives about a nominee's opponents," he argued.