October 24, 2024
Vice President Kamala Harris came in for attack Wednesday from CNN commentators who called her into a town hall meeting held in Pennsylvania hosted by Anderson Cooper. Harris also spoke to the undecided, which made some commentators wonder about her presentation and efficiency.
Most criticized was former senior adviser to President Obama David Axelrod, who said Harris gave long, undefined answers in the face of refusing to get straight to the point. “The thing that would concern me is when she doesn’t want to answer a question,” Axelrod said. “Her habit is to kind of go to word salad city, and she did that on a couple of answers. One was on Israel. Anderson asked a direct question, ‘Would you be stronger on Israel than Trump?’ And there was a seven-minute answer, but none of it related to the question he was asking.”
CNN’s Dana Bash agreed with Axelrod, observing that Harris didn’t really get her job done in securing support. “What I‘m hearing from people who I have been talking to, and that is that if her goal was to close the deal, they‘re not sure she did that,” Bash said, and that the vice president never offered any definitive response to specific policy areas.
Bash cited instances where Harris didn’t give specific answers, like when they asked her to name her legislative priorities or make a confession. But Bash did say that Harris’ effort to reach out directly to voters was a step in the right direction.
Jake Tapper noticed Harris did not spend much time detailing her policies, but spent most of her time ripping Donald Trump. “She focused a lot more on Donald Trump, I think it’s fair to say, than she did on many specifics in terms of what she would do as president,” Tapper added (although he conceded that Harris talked about small business blueprints during the town hall).
John King had one up his sleeve: Harris was “missing the point” in aligning her own narrative and values with her policy agenda. He urged Harris to use former president Bill Clinton’s ability to emotionally appeal to voters, and sell herself as a middle-class champion. “Where I think she fails sometimes is to connect it more to her policies,” King said Harris’ words about faith and personal experience were potent but could be more directly tied to her policies.
Abby Phillip pointed out that Harris was ‘middle-of-the-road’ when challenged by undecided voters for policy details, particularly regarding taxes. “It’s tough for her because I think that that comes across as evasive to some voters … They just want to know are my taxes going to go up if I make $500,000 a year or not?” Phillip noted.
Harris’ town hall appearance cast doubt on whether she would appeal to voters in the red at a time when the election is close and key issues are more important than ever.
