FTA:

AS KAMALA HARRIS BEGAN WINDING DOWN her search for a running mate, Donald Trump's team knew one thing clearly: It didn't want her to pick Josh Shapiro, the popular governor of swing-state Pennsylvania whose more moderate record made him a formidable opponent.

So the Trump campaign and its allies moved to quietly kneecap Shapiro. It did so by forging a de facto alliance with the enemy of its enemy, the progressive left, which opposed Shapiro"the only Jewish candidate on Harris's shortlist"largely because of his pro-Israel stances. The result was a swelling of progressive opposition (some of it organic, some artificially fed) that, among other things, saw Shapiro's online critics dub him "Genocide Josh."

"Where we could, we amplified the leftists on Twitter. We fed Shapiro oppo [opposition research] to the media. We did what we could to create more noise and discontent," a Trump adviser, speaking on condition of anonymity to describe internal campaign workings, told The Bulwark prior to Harris making her pick on Tuesday.

"We didn't do that with Tim Walz," the adviser said of the progressive blue-state Minnesota governor who ultimately scored the VP nod.