Posted on 08/30/2024 7:15:21 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
CNN was the lucky winner of the first sit-down media interview with Vice President Kamala Harris since she was pushed to the top of the ticket nearly forty days ago and, well, it didn’t go great.
It was not a particularly long interview. Internet rumors suggested it would be about eighteen minutes in totality and that it had been pre-recorded, which implied edits. While the interview was a bit longer than that and Dana Bash confirmed nothing was cut, we still got only about sixteen minutes of speaking time from Kamala. This was made more obvious by CNN’s decision to stretch it like pizza dough to fit an hour-long broadcast.
They opened with a nearly five-minute teaser video that came across like an ad for the Harris campaign, with Bash calling the interview a “watershed moment” in the election. Throughout the hour they took several commercial breaks, teased unaired portions of the interview and aired other pre-packaged videos.
CNN should have demanded more time from Kamala and when they didn’t get it, they should have aired the interview in its entirety at one time so viewers could easily recognize how strict the campaign was on access to the candidate. A bolder network would have done so.
Dana Bash’s initial questioning of Kamala was not wholly offensive; she asked Kamala what she would do on day one as president, about the massive shifts in her policy positions since 2019, about the current state of the economy and voters’ feelings that it was better under Trump, why she hasn’t accomplished in the past three and a half years the things she says she wants to accomplish in the next four and if she stands by her positive assessment of President Joe Biden after his debate against Trump. She also asked Walz about his misrepresentation of his service record and his wife’s fertility treatments.
But there were so many missed opportunities for follow-ups. Kamala claimed she had changed her position on fracking between 2019 and 2020, that she had “made clear” on the vice presidential debate stage in 2020 where she stood on the issue. In reality, she shared Biden’s position during the debate, not her own. “Joe Biden will not end fracking. He has been very clear about that,” she said at the time.
Bash did not press her on how she managed to go from thinking illegal immigration should be decriminalized and that ICE is comparable to the KKK to thinking we should enforce our nation’s border laws. Bash did not point out that, when asked if Bidenomics was a success, Kamala did not specifically say that it was.
Her attempts to ask tough questions of Walz similarly fell flat. She reduced Walz’s misstatements about his military record to one moment when he said he carried weapons in war; he also, though, continues to claim the wrong rank and has been introduced by others numerous times without correction as a combat veteran. Bash let Walz off easy when he explained it away as being an emotional guy who sometimes used “bad grammar.” Walz claimed that people he has served with have vouched for him, but plenty of his fellow service-members also criticized him and called him out for abandoning their unit ahead of a deployment.
Finally, Bash decided to spend the last few minutes of her already short interview playing footsie. She brought up a clip of Tim Walz’s son, Gus — “a star was born” — cheering for him at the convention and asked the governor to react to it. She referred to an “iconic photo” of Kamala’s grandniece watching her speak at the convention and asked Kamala what it meant to her. It was essentially a journalistic apology to the candidates for any tough questions she had asked earlier.
Aesthetically, the interview was a complete mess. The shot location was drab and looked like an office board room. Kamala was tucked in the back of the shot with Bash in the foreground, which made Kamala look small and insignificant. When the camera zoomed into Kamala’s face, you could see Bash shuffling her papers just above the chyron. The lighting washed everyone out (and it didn’t help that the warm-toned Harris chose a slate gray suit). Kamala had a water cup sitting directly under her chair in the center of the shot.
After the interview, CNN did its typical analysis. They had two panels during the next hour of programming, both of which had four liberal commentators facing off against one conservative. If you include host Abby Phillip — which you should, since she called Harris a “homework doer,” despite past staffers telling Politico she unequivocally did not do her homework — it was six against one.
For the Harris campaign, this was certainly by design. Bash was a great choice to attempt to give the interview legitimacy as she has the veneer of objectivity and is coming off a good performance at the presidential debate. But they knew Bash would never truly hold Kamala accountable. That’s just not the way it goes between Democrats and CNN.
Harris voters aren’t smart enough to care.
> Harris voters aren’t smart enough to care. <
Or too brainwashed to care: “I’m disappointed in Harris. But Trump is an evil racist and a Russian agent. Plus he wants to take away grandma’s Social Security. So I’m voting for Harris.”
🙁
Like Biden, and Obama before him - she is a DRONE
Trump is running against a “system” not a person.
The goal for her controllers is that she is simplistic, idiotic and predictable
Guess Dana decided not to use the video of tampon timaaaaay yanking his son’s arm uh, vigorously when he grew irritated with him.......
BTTT
LOL. What moron would believe this?
Misleading headline. Both CNN and Harris aimed to boost her candidacy. Since no noteworthy mistakes occurred, it worked.
It was worse than I would have expected for Kamala. She really isn’t that bright and the way she answered questions clearly reflected that to a discerning viewer.
Harris voters are neither stupid nor brainwashed. They correctly surmise that Harris will give them free stuff — debt forgiveness, free money, DEI jobs, and all at the expense of straight white men.
C’mon, she just got confused..she and Willie did a lot of fracking.
Kamala made no effort to distance herself from Biden. I thought she would and believe it was a mistake not to. No comment whatsoever about the disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal, which she now owns. Obviously the Democrats have no concerns about the quality of their candidate. All they know is that she is not Trump.
It’s not the questions. It’s the push back. When Trump gives an answer do they just say, ok and move on? When Vance answers a question do they same, “I see” and move on? No, they push and push and pressure and pressure trying to get them to say something damning. Did they do that? No? Shocking...
The betting markets seem to think that Harris will continue to give non answers to tough questions, such as changing her position on banning fracking. It seems Harris only says that she changed positions but never answers Dana Bash’s questions on why. This will not sit well with non Democrats.
Hello troll! Funny how even the betting markets and the New York Times think the interview was a bust. And yet here you are with your constant debbie-downer posts. I also thought you would be fighting side-by-side with the Ukies by now?
Could have been a lot worse for her. They did their best.
Harris is the perfect candidate for the deep swamp.
RE: Harris voters aren’t smart enough to care.
The scary thing is that could be HALF or more of America’s voters...
I found Walz’ “bad grammar” comment disingenuous. He was a teacher for many years, and he slips into “bad grammar?”
I started to watch it but didn’t get very far at all.
From what I saw, the very first question was: “What would you do on your first day in office?”
And the answer was: “Protect the middle class.”
My God. What kind of answer is that? Sounds good, means nothing.
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