'There was a meltdown': Ex-GOP insider says Trump panicking as Harris captures key group

Vice President Kamala Harris' acceptance speech of the Democratic Party's presidential nomination Thursday beat MAGA to the political punch and captured a key voting bloc in the process, according to a former Republican spokesperson.

Tara Setmayer, Seneca Project co-founder and former GOP communications director, argued during a CNN Friday morning that Harris positioned herself as a potential commander-in-chief before former President Donald Trump could define her as a threat.

"This was the opportunity for Kamala Harris to define herself to the American people ahead of what MAGA has been trying to do, what Donald Trump has been trying to do," Setmayer said.

"If you don't think it was effective, all you have to do is look at how Donald Trump and his surrogates were responding to her speech: there was a meltdown."

ALSO READ: Donald Trump exploits AP photo error for new $99 'Save America' book

The former GOP representative did not clarify her frame of reference, but could have been pointing to Trump's live-posted complaints to Truth Social or a Fox News tirade interrupted repeatedly by Trump's mistaken bashings on his telephone buttons.

Setmayer argued Friday Harris appeared, in comparison to Trump, more competent to represent the nation in the Oval Office.

"She looked presidential, she sounded presidential," Setmayer said. "It almost felt like a State of the Union."

Harris' claim to a presidential identity landed with Setmayer and, the political commentator argued, with a key group of center politics voters that ushered Trump into the White House in 2016.

It's also a voting bloc with less access to abortion after three Trump-appointees voted to overturn Roe v. Wade with the historic Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization ruling of 2022.

"It was white suburban women who elected Donald Trump," Setmayer said. Now, she said, "Women are going, 'Wait a minute, we won't go back.'"

Setmayer repeatedly described Harris' outreach to those women as brilliant.

"Harris has really brilliantly captured that spirit," she said. "Women, I think are coming together in solidarity, because it's still women in the battleground states that are going to make the difference."

Paul Begala, co-panelist and onetime campaign adviser to former President Bill Clinton, concurred that Harris had the upper hand when it came to unifying a political party ahead of Election Day on Nov. 5.

Begala pointed to Harris' promise to be a president for all Americans, regardless of political affiliation, as a crucial moment in her speech when it came to unifying her base.

"You can unify a party at the extreme, you can, you know, if it's all just the Cro-Magnons and the Neanderthals, not naming names to any party," he quipped.

"But to take a big diverse coalition, like Kamala Harris has, and hold it all together, to welcome Tara Setmayer into the fold? ... That's how you win in this country."

Watch the full conversation below or click here