It’s the Democrats’ race to lose.
That’s the view of liberal activist and filmmaker Michael Moore who has warned Democrats not to fumble their chances of beating former President Trump in November’s presidential election now that Vice President Kamala Harris heads the ticket.
The outspoken and influential Moore told the Guardian that the party is riding on a wave of optimism following President Biden’s decision to bow out of the race after succumbing to unwavering pressure from powerful left-wing voices, including Moore.
‘This isn’t just a sugar-high or what [recovering] heroin addicts call a pink cloud,’ Moore told the U.K. publication. ‘It was so depressing for so many weeks and then it was instantly not depressing. I am hopeful now but it’s ours to blow – and we have a history of blowing it.’
Moore has been here before. He warned Democrats of Trump beating Hillary Clinton in his 2016 movie ‘in Trumpland’ where he said Trump’s message appealed to disenfranchised voters in Michigan and other battleground states.
In 2020, he took to X and said that enthusiasm for Trump was ‘off the charts’ and pleaded with Democrats to come together to defeat the incumbent.
Moore says he’s happy Harris chose Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate and that he’s confident Harris can inflict serious damage on Trump when they debate next month.
‘Once anybody gets under that thin skin anything can happen,’ Moore says. ‘On live TV? Trump could explode, start talking like a 12-year-old, though no offense to 12-year-olds, or get up and leave.’
‘I understand why people are nervous it might be a sugar high but Harris and Walz are people of substance. They’re being slow and cautious enough to get it together. It’s just been a couple of weeks. They are going to have to tell us what they’re going to do and hopefully come up with the right thing. And there will be mistakes.’
Moore hailed Harris’ decision not to attend Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to congress last month, signaling a change of direction while urging her to cater to the party’s anti-Israel base.
‘Young people hate war and they’re totally against Biden and his support of the war.’
He says Harris needs to tap into ‘affordable housing, student debt, peace and the dying planet.’
Moore says the way to beat Trump is to continue doing ‘weird and cringe until the debate and then nail him.’
‘But nail him with irony, satire and a simple way to point out the beyond weird absolute idiocy and insanity of what these two men are talking about. Reach them on a commonsense level so it doesn’t matter if you’re Democrat or Republican.’
Democrats have been labeling the Trump-Vance ticket as ‘weird’ as part of a new line of criticism, while the Harris-Walz campaign have been criticized for their cringeworthy and scripted online videos.
Last month, Moore joined many on the Left in calling for Biden to drop out of the race and allow Vice President Kamala Harris to take his place.
‘May I ask you, Mr. President, for one more brave and bold action?’ Moore wrote in a Substack article days before Biden withdrew. Weeks earlier, he accused the Democratic Party of committing ‘elder abuse’ by continuing to push President Biden to stay in the race.
‘She will have three and a half months (as they say, ‘an eternity in politics’) to show the American people her smarts, her strengths, her heart,’ he continued. ‘She is fierce, and compassionate, and unstoppable. She will have the power to issue significant executive orders that can provide help to the middle class, protect the environment, restore basic women’s rights.’