Kamala Hammered?

As I noted yesterday, although the Trump campaign focused attention early Sunday on the possibility that Kamala is impaired at many of her public events, the suggestion isn't new. I did a web search on "Kamala drunk" this morning, and I came up with the image above on Amazon, which was advertising this as just the tote bag you might want for this past July 4th. In fact, this could maybe make the right ladies look hip on the beach out in the Hamptons.

The story hasn't hit all the alt aggregtators yet, but this one at Hot Air draws a reasonble inference:

Is Kamala drunk most of the time? If you watch her talk with that possibility in mind, so much makes sense all of a sudden. All those word salads, the occasional slurring, the inappropriate laughs... These are all tells that her brain is fogged by something, and it may not be stupidity.

Newsweek is already on the case:

As Donald Trump grapples to combat the surge of support for Kamala Harris with a barrage of personal attacks against her, his campaign team appear to be rolling out a new line this week—by alleging that his Democratic rival has a "drinking problem."

No evidence has been offered up to support the allegations, which are being pushed by Trump's allies across social media. Trump campaign insider James Blair is thought to be the first person who made the unsubstantiated claims, with a post on X (formerly Twitter) on Sunday, and other pro-Trump accounts subsequently repeated the allegations. Newsweek has contacted representatives for both Trump and Harris by email seeking a response to Blair's comments.

I pointed out yesterday that James Blair and others embedded tweets from July and earlier this month that pointed out the potential problem, and the Kamala Hammered tote has apparently been on Amazon for a couple of months, so the rumors didn't originate with the Trump campaign. I discovered a new version that's apparently been put out just since this weekendL

The pitch that accompanies it says,

The Kamala Harris Hammered Shirt is not merely a piece of clothing; it is an embodiment of the challenges and triumphs that have shaped the life and career of this remarkable woman. The intricate hammering detail, reminiscent of a blacksmith’s work, conveys the relentless effort and resilience she has displayed in the face of adversity.

Well, shacking up with Willie Brown might well qualify as a challenge. So it's not a bug, it's a feature, at least if you're going for the day drinker vote. But the Hot Air story makes the point,

[S]he didn't exactly rise to where she is by being especially good at politics. She was carried there by others who were pushing her up the mountain, not hiking up it by herself. Since it didn't take skill to get there, maybe even sobriety wasn't required.

Reports that Kamala has been impaired in public date back to her brief campaign for the presidency in 2019. USA Today fact checked one such at the time:

A viral image purporting to show Democratic vice presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris intoxicated gained traction this week after she made a campaign visit to Ohio.

"Throwing up in the bushes & staggering aimlessly at the #Cleveland airport was the last straw before staffers put #KamalaHarris back in the plane and took off for #Oshkosh," reads an Oct. 25 Facebook post that has been shared over 1,000 times. "Onlookers claim the clearly intoxicated Harris was confrontational but too weak to put up much of a fight."

The fact check established that the photo was taken in Iowa and apparently misleadingly captioned to suggest Kamala was leaning to throw up, when she was greeting a child -- but the separate possibility that she'd nevertheless actually been drunk in Cleveland wasn't addressed.

But here's yet another video, posted July 12 before the current controversy broke out, that suggested there's a problem:

Throwback to that time Kamala was obviously high or drunk or both. pic.twitter.com/vN7RfDMqJW

— Coco 🇺🇸 (@CoClarified) July 12, 2024

Blair and the Trump campaign are simply picking up a topic that's been in the background for some time. For now, the story has been slow to develop, but it dates back as far as 2019, and as a few have pointed out, there must be insiders, including disgruntled former staff, who can provide corroboration.