Kamala Harris’s media tour has effectively become an in-kind contribution to Donald Trump’s campaign.
Amid pressure from Republicans and normally friendly corporate media outlets over her unprecedented refusal to give unscripted interviews, Kamala Harris finally took to the airwaves this week for what should have been a series of softball-laden appearances with friendly faces. Instead, the vice president has ignited one controversy after another, creating a gold mine of content for Republican attack ads in the final weeks of the race.
Perhaps the most astounding unforced error came on Tuesday from the unlikeliest of sources – the ladies of The View. “If anything,” asked host Sunny Hostin, “would you have done something differently than President Biden during the past four years?”
“There is not a single thing that comes to mind,” Harris replied.
In just 10 words, Harris unequivocally and voluntarily tied herself to every failure of the past four years – vaccine mandates, draconian lockdowns, the Afghanistan debacle, 20 percent cumulative inflation, 10 million illegal aliens, war in Ukraine, weaponization of government, and so much more. Joe Biden broke records as the most unpopular president in modern American history, and Kamala Harris just admitted that she would have taken all of the same actions that made Biden so unpopular.
In essence, Harris told the American people what Republicans have been saying all along: that electing her would be a continuation of the failed Biden administration. She is not the “change” candidate Democrats and the media have so desperately tried to portray her as.
Harris doubled down (or tried to) during an appearance on Stephen Colbert’s show on Wednesday night when he gave her another chance to answer the same question. “I’m obviously not Joe Biden, and so that would be one change,” Harris said, touching off another of her famous word salads. “But also I think it’s important to say with 28 days to go that I’m not Donald Trump. And so when we think about the significance of what this next generation of leadership looks like, were I to be elected president, it is about, frankly, I love the American people and I believe in our country – I love that it is our character and nature to be an ambitious people…” Harris continued on in this manner for 30 more seconds before Colbert finally stepped in to save her.
Those comments are just two of many from this week that will likely come back to haunt Harris and Democrats. Things got off to a rough start on Sunday when Harris appeared on an episode of “Call Her Daddy,” a raunchy, X-rated podcast that more commonly features celebrities and social media influencers.
Harris recorded the interview in the hours after Hurricane Helene devastated vast swaths of the southeast, a move that came across as callous and out of touch. “I’m sorry, but I don’t give a f*** about Kamala Harris going on Call Her Daddy – a podcast about women and women’s sex health, when we have states LITERALLY UNDER WATER,” one X user wrote.
“I think you and your listeners have really got this thing right, which is one of the best ways to communicate with people is to be real, you know, and to talk about the things that people really care about,” Harris told Cooper. Yet the podcast focused heavily on abortion with virtually no mention of the economy or the border, consistently rated as the two most important issues to voters.
Critics also slammed Harris’s claim that there are “no laws governing men’s bodies” – apparently forgetting or ignoring the existence of the military draft.
Shortly after the podcast was posted online, the Trump campaign responded with a devastating video overlaying Harris’s smug comments about “the things that people really care about” with footage of Hurricane Helene destruction. The video amassed more than three million views on TikTok alone in just 14 hours and has been viewed millions more times on other platforms.
The public relations disaster continued with Harris’s appearance on CBS’s “60 minutes.” Even an obviously sympathetic Bill Whitaker, who pressed her on a few points but largely lofted up seemingly simple and predictable questions, couldn’t save Harris from herself.
When asked how she proposes to pay for her economic plan, which economists estimate would cost somewhere around $5 trillion, Harris responded, “My economic plan would strengthen America’s economy,” prompting Whitaker to retort, “But pardon me Madam Vice President, the question was, how are you going to pay for it?”
On immigration, Harris completely melted down when asked if she believed it was a mistake to loosen immigration policy over the past four years, refusing to even acknowledge that border crossings had skyrocketed under her watch.
CBS tried to salvage the appearance by heavily editing Harris’s responses – but that only backfired further when many users on social media pointed out the fraud. In one case CBS appears to have replaced a confused and disjointed answer from Harris on Israel with one of her responses from earlier in the interview. The Trump campaign has since called on the network to release the full unedited interview.
Ultimately, Harris showed this week why her campaign has worked so hard to shield the vice president from any unscripted media appearances. The first time Harris has faced any consistent scrutiny, even from media allies, it has devolved into an all-out crisis.
Shane Harris is a writer and political consultant from Southwest Ohio. You can follow him on X @shaneharris513.
