It was a cringe-inducing moment.
No one expected Kamala Harris to be grilled on "The View," comprised of cheerleaders for her candidacy.
But Whoopi Goldberg introduced her by bellowing "the next president of the United States," it was a slap-your-forehead moment." Seriously?
The whole session yesterday was an in-kind contribution to the Harris campaign.
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I know, they’re not straight journalists, they’re liberal commentators slash entertainers. They read their questions verbatim off blue cards. That’s precisely why she wanted to do the show.
There were some reasonable questions: How would her presidency differ from Joe Biden’s? How would she handle the border? Why wouldn’t Ron DeSantis take her calls about hurricane preparations with a Category 4 storm about to hit Florida?
And then there was Joy Behar, who went on about Trump’s lies and asked how anyone could possibly support him. That enabled the Vice President to say Trump was all about personal grievances, not the voters.
Kamala made good use of the forum, such as dishing on how she was working out and with her kids when Joe Biden called to say he was stepping aside.
Bottom line: "The View," an ABC program founded by Barbara Walters – it’s still in the news division – was even more embarrassing than I expected, with the ladies falling all over themselves to praise Harris and trash Trump.
Some reasonable questions were asked, but Kamala ran circles around them and deflected what she didn't want to answer while getting her familiar talking points in.
It was a good forum for her, and for once she came prepared to make news. In a move earlier leaked to Politico, Harris made her pitch for having Medicare reimburse caring for the elderly at home instead of only in expensive institutions – the first new policy proposal she's made in weeks. She said she would pay for it by demanding deeper discounts on certain drugs paid for by Medicare. Needless to say, she was not exactly cross-examined on the subject.
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The ladies seemed awed that Kamala Harris was even there.
It was a very different Kamala who appeared on a "60 Minutes" prime-time special aired the night before.
To be sure, the news magazine show repeated some of her criticisms of Trump, with Bill Whitaker saying: "You have accused Donald Trump of using racist tropes when it comes to Haitian immigrants. In Springfield, Ohio. When it comes to birtherism, when it comes to Charlottesville, in fact, you have called him a racist and divisive, yet Donald Trump has the support of millions and millions of Americans."
The veep’s talking-point response: "I believe that the people of America want a leader who's not trying to divide us and demean."
But Whitaker was a bulldog when it came to asking for followups again and again when the Democratic nominee offered generalities.
When asked about the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget saying her plan would add $3 trillion over the next decade – it was much higher for Trump – Harris talked about economists liking her plan and pivoted to praising small business.
Whitaker’s response: "Pardon me, Madam Vice President. The question was, how are you going to pay for it?"
This time, Harris said she’d make sure billionaires and big corporations would have to pay their "fair share," and Whitaker expressed skepticism that Congress would approve that.
This was the question that Harris hasn’t really had to answer.
"Let me tell you what your critics and the columnists say, okay? They say that the reason so many voters don't know you is that you have changed your position on so many things," said Whitaker. "You were against fracking. Now you're for it. You supported looser immigration policies, now you're tightening them up. You are for Medicare for All. Now you're not so many that people don't truly know what you believe or what you stand for."
Harris offered this answer: "In the last four years I have been vice president, United States. And I have been traveling our country. And I have been listening to folks and seeking what is possible in terms of common ground. I believe in building consensus." Translation: The world has changed and I have to be realistic about what I can get passed.
The interview was so heavily edited that you could see the changes several times as Harris magically limited her answers to two sentences. That’s the overproduced "60 Minutes" style, but I think it was a mistake. CBS should have run the whole thing, or a major chunk of it, unedited.
Scott Pelley said Trump had agreed to an interview but backed out with shifting explanations, including that there be no fact-checking.
By yesterday afternoon, Kamala was taping her interview with Howard Stern, who loved Trump back in the day when they were rating women and has been totally opposed to him as a candidate and president.
Reacting to Bob Woodward’s forthcoming book saying Trump secretly sent Vladimir Putin a COVID test machine during the pandemic – which the former president denies – the VP said: "I believe that Donald Trump has this desire to be a dictator. He admires strongmen and he gets played by them because he thinks that they’re his friends and they are manipulating him full-time and manipulating him by flattery and with favor…
"This guy who is President of the United States is sending them to Russia? To a murderous dictator for his personal use?"
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Stern called it "maddening" and "insanity" that anyone would support Donald Trump. He told Harris he would vote for her, but could also vote for "that wall over there" over the ex-president.
Harris is finally starting to make some news. Imagine if she’d started some of these interviews weeks ago.
