Harris is leaning into her history as a prosecutor. It's not the first time

Two days before President Biden announced he would step back from his push for a second term, his campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon, appeared on television, insisting the president would stay in the race.

“He is the best person to take on Donald Trump and prosecute that case,” Dillon said.

But about 72 hours later, it was instead Vice President Harris making that same argument — and reviving a case she had made in 2019, when she ran in a crowded Democratic field seeking the nomination that year.

“Before I was elected as vice president, before I was elected as United States senator, I was the elected attorney general, as I've mentioned, of California. And before that, I was a courtroom prosecutor,” Harris said to campaign staffers in Wilmington, Del., on the day after Biden endorsed her to take his place at the top of the Democratic ticket.

“In those roles, I took on perpetrators of all kinds — predators who abused women, fraudsters who ripped off consumers, cheaters who broke the rules for their own gain. So, hear me when I say: I know Donald Trump's type,” Harris said, in a line that has become the centerpiece of her whirlwind campaign.

It’s rhetoric Harris has used before

Back in 2019, when she first ran for president, Harris’ campaign was centered on her career as a prosecutor. Her slogan was “for the people,” which is how Harris would introduce herself in court.

Her pitch to voters is the same that it is today: that with her background as a prosecutor, she is the best person to take on Trump.

But five years ago, Harris’ record as a prosecutor was a liability in her campaign. She faced attacks from her Democratic opponents in the primary debates on her record with marijuana and on cracking down on truancy rates.