Especially since her selection as Biden’s vice presidential running mate, a strategy for “othering” Harris, positioning her as apart from the norm and raising doubts about her “fit” for vice presidential leadership, has been to mispronounce her name. Republican leaders and Trump surrogates have employed this tactic. At a campaign rally in Georgia, U.S. Senator David Perdue (R-GA) – a colleague of Harris’s – does this most overtly when he refers to her as, “Kamala-mala-mala,” and adds, “I don’t know, whatever,” in failing to get the pronunciation of her name correct. He later issued a statement saying his mispronunciation was not purposeful.