After the long Labor Day weekend, you’re forgiven if you thought it seemed like ages ago since Democrat presidential nominee cackling Kamala Harris gave her “first” sit-down interview of this election cycle. Or should I say, Democrat presidential nominees Harris and “Tampon Tim” Walz sat for their first joint interview…, well, ever, last week.
Every election campaign has a personality of its own, and this one is set apart more than
most. Who would’ve predicted that before Labor Day this year, Trump would’ve vanquished the entire field of Republican primary challengers without barely breaking a sweat, united the GOP, vetted an entire field of Republican vice presidential candidates (remember Eilise Stefanik and Tim Scott as contenders?), won the earliest presidential debate ever, relentlessly pestered president senile Joe Biden into ending his reelection bid, survived an assassination attempt (and being wounded), selected an awesome running mate, presided over a historic RNC, gained cackling air-brain Kamala Harris as an opponent, lost his sizable lead in the polls… and lived through four days of rhetorical artillery bombardment (sometimes known at the DNC) to reach this point.
Oh yeah, and that cackling Kamala n’ Tampon Tim would be granted a lasting bathroom hall pass by the establishment media that would endure 30-something days without requiring her to sit down for a face-to-face with a journo.
Recall also that cackling Kamala had promised that she would grant a media member access to her for longer than a couple seconds before the end of the month, a vow that she (sort of) kept last week, allowing CNN’s Dana Bash to approach her for a game of twenty-one (literally) questions on Thursday evening.
Why 21? That’s about as long as Kamala n’ Tim stayed for. They didn’t exactly appear as though they were in a hurry to get out of there, but they also didn’t leave much time for follow-ups or a great deal of fleshing out the responses.
No matter. There was still plenty to touch on, especially regarding Kamala’s demeanor and… who’s that bald guy again? In an article titled, “Six takeaways from Harris CNN interview: VP speaks out on Biden exit and war in Gaza” Naomi Lim reported at the Washington Examiner the day after the interview:
“Vice President Kamala Harris‘s long-awaited sit-down interview, her first as the 2024 Democratic presidential nominee, will likely leave critics dissatisfied.
“In particular, critics who have scrutinized Harris for her light-on-substance campaign may have more questions than answers as the vice president comes under pressure to detail her policy positions, including on what issues she differs from President Joe Biden and those on which she will strike out on her own.
“But in the interview, Harris defended standing behind Biden amid concerns about his age and mental acuity, in addition to dismissing the idea of an arms embargo on Israel amid its war with Hamas in Gaza.”
For what it’s worth, Lim’s interview takeaways included:
1. Harris’s day one priorities;
2. Policy flip-flops;
3. The interview underscored the pressure Harris could face from her left;
4. And the pressure she may face regarding the Israel-Gaza war;
5. Harris defends supporting Biden; and,
6. Harris and Walz share interview time, with running mate pressed on controversies.
I’d recommend looking over Lim’s piece in its entirety – if you’re interested in the interview itself -- for a more thorough treatment of the back-and-forth.
There’s a lot here, so I’ll try to provide the gist of what Kamala said in a context a bit different than a media report. It’s mostly about what Kamala didn’t say that merits the most comment.
To begin with, I noted that Harris maintained very poor eye contact with CNN’s Dana Bash throughout the program. Was she lying or just shy? Whereas Donald Trump, during interviews, typically engages the questioner leaning in a comfortable manner with his weight forward, his hands positioned to make or supplement points and behaves as though he’s engaging with the speaker, Kamala sits passively and doesn’t make good eye contact at all. Is it because she’s hiding something? Regardless, that’s the impression she leaves.
On the whole, the Harris interview left me unsatisfied. I can’t speak for the Democrat ticket itself, but it sounded to me as though the team was basically repackaging the same old quotes they’d regurgitated for a month now – or however long it’s been since they’ve been on the national stage.
It’s not that Harris and Walz didn’t speak on the topics. It was more like they’d rehearsed responses to hypothetical inquiries and were counting on the viewing audience to accept a wink, nod and a “you know” for an answer. There wasn’t any substance to the skeletal retorts. Walz, during the brief period he was actually permitted to speak, deflected a question from Bash regarding his military service with, “I’m very proud of my 24 years of service” and, while admitting that he hadn’t actually served in combat, explained he was really just concerned about “combat style guns” in schools, and, in general… you-know-what I meant.
Walz also kept saying “you know what I believe” and that he stands behind his record. Well, Tim, we don’t know what you believe, and what we do know, we don’t like. It occurred to me that at this point, flashes of regret raced through Kamala’s mind, like “Why did I choose this guy again?” and, “Now that I look at him, he’s balder than I thought he was,” and “Is it too late to substitute Josh Shapiro for this bozo?”
Or, “Why the heck did my staff insist on me taking him along on this interview again?”
Most of Walz’s answers concluded with yet another plea to protect women’s reproductive health, the man seemingly proud of his open advocacy for abortion, and yet another indication that Democrats intend to center the 2024 campaign around the theme. Walz appears prouder of his work on guaranteeing transgenders their “rights” to transition than he does about quelling the destructive riots that ravaged his state during the summer of 2020.
Of course, Walz didn’t call out the national guard until swaths of Minneapolis were well on their way to being leveled.
Democrats realize that if they have to talk about the economy or incomes or wages, they’re toast. As would be expected, cackling Kamala and Tampon Tim blamed the pandemic for the conditions that led to Americans’ suffering under the weight of inflation. According to Kamala, things were terrible during the first three years of Trump’s first term even though statistics indicate there were wage increases in those years and family incomes rose sharply.
But Kamala admitted things have turned south recently, she leaving out the part that they’ve done so while she and political partner senile Joe Biden commanded the helm. Harris conceded that “prices are too high” and touted her program to start first-time home buyers with a $25,000 check, not expanding on how the program would be paid for, or who foots the bill – or how it would help other buyers with high interest rates or other costs.
Kamala also promoted her idea to expand per child tax credits, though again, not on how they’d be paid for.
Didn’t high school economics instruct that prices are set by supply and demand, not how big your house down payment would be?
The subject of economics clearly makes Kamala uncomfortable because her fixes for the economy were probably hastily invented in a conference room during a brainstorming session. “How will we make it sound like we’re going to do something about inflation, and, how will we make our proposals sound different than senile Joe’s”? And, why aren’t we pitching this to Joe now so that inflation will ease before the election?
Further, what are we going to say when they ask if we were right on continuing to support senile Joe during all those months when the whole world was questioning his mental acuity?
Not that she cares that much, but Kamala is in a tight spot with the “Why did you back Biden and then seem eager to step in for him when he bowed out?” If she told the truth, she’d reply something like, “Being vice president, I recognized very early on – like on Inauguration Day – that Joe was a deteriorating old geezer, yet had to play along with it to maintain political viability.”
Instead, Kamala lies and changes the subject to how smart and loyal and “with it” senile Joe is and how he’s eminently capable of serving out his term – and that even though he made the “selfless” choice to step down he really cares about the country. How, Kamala? Further, she doesn’t seem the least bit bothered by how she was gifted the Democrat nomination without going through the primary process.
When Bash quizzed Kamala on whether she immediately accepted senile Joe’s endorsement when he did finally call it quits, she acted as though she wasn’t prepared for the news. Instead of waiting on bended knee anticipating the job offer, she was worried about Joe’s welfare.
Yeah, right, What a loving, caring person. You can see it in her downcast eyes.
“My first thought wasn’t about me”, Kamala expounded. No, Harris said her initial compassionate response was about Biden himself, as though every ounce of her being wasn’t shrieking, “YES! YES! Ding dong the wicked witch is dead! Now I get to be top dog! Get the heck off the phone, Joe!”
Walz sat by when most of this was going on as though he were waiting for a chance to expand on Kamala’s retelling of the tale, knowing he didn’t want to say much beyond what he’d already offered. A good portion of the 35-40 minutes Walz looked bored and uninterested, clearly not used to his pathetic ranking on the pecking order. Whereas J.D. Vance is bright and enthusiastic, Walz is like a child’s stuffed security animal placed there to grimace and nod along for effect.
Finally, to reinforce that this “interview” was mostly fluff and Democrat self-promotion, Bash ended her questioning by asking Walz to recall how his special needs’ son’s tearful reaction (to his dad’s speech at the convention) was highlighted by the emotion-seeking media, and then featured a grinning Kamala gushing over the now-viral photo of herself standing at the speaker’s podium in front of her niece looking on at the DNC.
What a proud moment for the communist/socialist liar Affirmative Action DEI vice-president-turned fill-in major party nominee from California!
Like who cares? It begs the question: why don’t Trump and Vance get interesting “human interest” topics to dish on? Why aren’t Republicans given that kind of leeway?
They’re too busy talking about policy to talk about themselves, that’s why.
In the final seconds, the CNN camera caught Harris shooting Walz a sly grin as if to say, “That’s it? That’s all they’re going to ask? We got through it, didn’t we? This was easy! Suckers!”
So went the first “official” interview of the Harris/Walz era. We don’t know how many more there will be, but the American public likely wasn’t impressed with this iteration. It’d be hard for two politicians to use more time to say any less. For substance and a lot more entertainment, catch a Trump or Vance event.
Joe Biden economy
inflation
Biden cognitive decline
gas prices,
Nancy Pelosi
Biden senile
Kamala Harris candidacy
Donald Trump campaign
Harris Trump debates
J.D. Vance
Kamala vice president
Speaker Mike Johnson
Donald Trump assassination
2022 elections
Donald Trump
2024 presidential election
Tim Walz
Terms that Trump should avoid like the plague: cackling Kamala and Tampon Tim. He needs to press Kamala on economic and border issues and touch on her failure to deal with them for the past three and a half years. Regarding Tim, if he mentions him at all, he needs to concentrate on his stolen valor and failure to deal with the rioting in Minneapolis. The most important thing is that he not come off as rude or condescending toward Kamala.
Anyone who watched that **** show of an interview has a lot more patience than I do. The older I get the less patience I have with deliberate stupidity, unmitigated Communist hypocrisy, outright lies and double speak. And from what I've heard, there was an abundant supply of all of the above on hand for those who had the fortitude to watch it.