Kamala Harris Fox News interview proves she lacks answers because she lacks beliefs
A few months into Kamala Harris’ 2024 presidential run, her handlers faced a dilemma: Should they continue cocooning the candidate or unleash her on the public? Both options came with serious political risks.Sure, Democrats could keep pretending Harris was a generational talent, but her refusal to sit down for an interview, much less give a press conference, was eroding this fantasy.On the other hand, as her handlers surely understood, the more people hear from Harris, the more concerned they tend to get.Indeed, Harris is a thermonuclear platitude dispenser.Few people in American history have expended so many words to say so little.Her turns of phrase are often so cartoonishly ludicrous, they should be used in college textbooks to explain to students what a “tautology” is.
After watching Fox News’ Brett Baier interview Harris Wednesday, it is clearer than ever that extemporaneous speaking isn’t Harris’ strong suit.The presidential candidate has an uncanny ability to respond to straightforward questions in circuitous, mind-bending arrays of irrelevant non sequiturs.To work around this problem, Harris’ “media blitz” was initially curated to ensure the candidate would never find herself in the vicinity of a tough inquiry.
Before going on Fox, she visited sycophants like sex podcaster Alex Cooper and one-time shock jock Howard Stern.She spoke to allies at MSNBC and the cheerleaders at “The View.”Even in these friendly venues, Harris could barely generate a substantive answer to any questions.During an unscripted Univision town hall, non-journalist audience members finally pressed her on inflation.
Harris let everyone know she was not just of middle-class stock but working-class stock.Which is to say, no one in the audience heard anything new.And maybe they were the lucky ones.During a pre-recorded interview with “60 Minutes,” correspondent Bill Whitaker threw a bunch of reasonable, if predictable, questions at Harris.
No gotchas, no deep di...