All eyes on the Democrats: Is Trump nervous after Kamala Harris enters the race?

In brief…

• Kamala Harris has become the new face of the Democrats’ presidential campaign after Joe Biden pulled out
• The election is still “Trump’s to lose”, but momentum may have shifted
• Now, the former president could be struggling for attention despite his attempted assassination just last week, The News Agents say.

It seems like an age ago now that Donald Trump was nearly gunned down at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania in an event that ascended him to near-martyrdom status among his supporters.

But they say a week is a long time in politics.

With Joe Biden announcing his withdrawal from the presidential race and Kamala Harris stepping in to take his place,  has attention shifted to the Democrats?

And it is not just attention, but money too, as millions of dollars continue to pour in to fund the Harris campaign.

Will this worry the Republican candidate who looked as if he could win the contest against his 81-year-old former opponent by a landslide?

And will he and his team be regretting some of the decisions they have made along the way?

A new face for the Democrats

Jon Sopel asks: “Did Biden get out of the race too late?

“Damn right he did. Much better if he’d done it in February. But now you're looking at it and thinking, is this a piece of genius?”

“Is it a master stroke, that suddenly so close to the election you have got a new figure coming into the race that is going to energize, that is going to give people a sense that there is a new direction?”

It comes after Biden faced weeks of calls to resign after a disastrous TV debate against Trump, followed by a series of gaffes that led people to question his mental sharpness.

Vice President Kamala Harris may have breathed new life into the campaign, but Jon says it is still  “Donald Trump's election to lose.”

But he adds: “I think that he's obviously built up a lead in these weeks where Biden has been faltering and stumbling and falling. Kamala Harris has to claw it back somehow.

“Having said all of that, I think that a paradigm shift has taken place in American politics.”

With Kamala Harris entering the race, Jon says there is going to be another surge of energy when she announces who her running mate will be, and more during the Democratic Party convention.

Jon adds: “It could be that a lot of momentum is going to be falling behind the Democrats now. And Donald Trump for the first time ever, is going to be struggling for attention. Because I think that actually all the attention at the moment is on the Democratic Party.”

A mistake by the Trump campaign?

This also comes after the announcement of JD Vance as Trump’s running mate. The Ohio Senator, who Jon has previously described as a “Trump-Maga mini-me”, comes from the same side of the Republican camp.

Jon says “suddenly all their calculations, and the calculation of JD Vance being the perfect VP and running mate” could backfire.

That is, that Trump has doubled down, not broadened the ticket or the appeal.

It's just “male white MAGA”, Jon says.

“I wonder whether that is looking quite so smart today”, he adds.

Will campaign funding play a role?

Harris has already raked in a staggering $250million donations and counting since throwing her hat into the ring for the presidential nomination.

Emily Maitlis says: “I think it's worth talking about the critical role that money plays and what it buys you in a US election campaign, because by God have the taps been turned on.

“They are gushing at the moment. And Kamala Harris seems to have raised something like $100 million in the past 36 hours, which is a staggering sum of money, and a lot of it coming from people who have never donated before to the Democratic Party. And that is a big deal as well.”

Listen to the latest episode of The News Agents: Is the US presidential race about to get dirty?