Trump’s ‘Kamala’s for they/them’ attack ad no ‘knock-out’ punch

WASHINGTON — Ex-Veep Kamala Harris has scoffed at the notion the Trump campaign ad about her supporting government-funded trans surgery for illegal migrants and inmates was a “knockout punch” for her presidential bid.

During the 2024 campaign cycle, Trump’s camp seized upon Harris’s support for taxpayer-funded transgender surgeries, crafting a biting ad declaring, “Kamala’s for they/them, President Trump is for you.”

Some political pundits have argued that the ad was one of the death knells to her campaign.

But Harris, in her upcoming memoir “107 Days,” chalked up that belief to “the conventional wisdom of middle-aged men who don’t live in battleground states” — although she admitted Trump’s ad did feel like a “winning message.”

Still, the middle-aged California native said she does not “regret my decision to follow my protective instincts” and safeguard transgender people, according to previews of her book by Semafor, Politico, and the New York Times.

“This is a community with which I have a deep connection,” Harris contended. “There was no way I was going to go against my very nature and turn on transgender people.”

The former veep only conceded that she wished she had been able to more effectively counter the line of attack.

“I do regret not giving even more attention to how we might mitigate Trump’s attacks,” Harris said.

“I wish I could have gotten the message across that there isn’t a distinction between ‘they/them’ and ‘you.’ The pronoun that matters is ‘we.’ We the people.”

The Trump campaign ad had seized on revelations unearthed by CNN that in a 2020 campaign-era questionnaire from the American Civil Liberties Union, the then-presidential contender expressed support for government-guaranteed transgender surgeries.

On the questionnaire, Harris affirmed that as president, she would use her executive powers to “ensure that transgender and nonbinary people who rely on the state for medical care — including those in prison and immigration detention” — would receive access to “all necessary surgical care.”

She later doubled down on that stance during an interview with the National Center for Transgender Equality Action Fund.

Throughout the 2024 cycle, GOP operatives and the Trump campaign worked to seize on the far-left position and others that Harris adopted during her short-lived 2020 run for the Democratic presidential nod.

Despite expressing pride in her “decision to follow my protective instincts” and safeguard the transgender community, Harris still admitted in her book that there are legitimate concerns about fairness in girls’ sports involving the trans athlete issue.

“I agree with the concerns expressed by parents and players that we have to take into account biological factors such as muscle mass and unfair student athletic advantage when we determine who plays on which teams, especially in contact sports,” Harris wrote.

“With goodwill and common sense, I believe we can come up with ways to do this, without vilifying and demonizing children.”

Culture-war issues loomed large in the 2024 cycle. Democrats are still grappling with how to navigate transgender issues.

Earlier this year, California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) conceded that “it’s deeply unfair” to let biological males who became transgender women compete against biological women in sports.

Harris’s memoir on her 107-day campaign for the presidency is set to hit bookshelves Tuesday.

In the book, she also gave surprisingly candid takes on former President Joe Biden and her brief stint as the Democratic nominee for president.