With Kamala Harris set to make her “closing argument” on the Washington Mall on Tuesday evening, she did several interviews throughout the day to prime her big moment. At this point, it’s likely no great surprise that they didn’t go well. Despite just a week remaining before election day, Harris has still not worked out answers to basic questions about her record.
Why did the vice president wait nearly 40 days after her presidential campaign announcement to do an interview? The following clip is why, and it remains a big liability as voters continue to cast their votes in the final stretch.
Reporter: “Why haven’t you done any of it already?”
Kamala: “I’m not President”
Reporter: “You’re Vice President.”
Kamala: “I’m gonna tell you what I’m doing as president when I have the ability, then, to do what I know based on my experience.” pic.twitter.com/7oFMAq6P5C
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) October 29, 2024
REPORTER: I think what some voters are struggling with, and we’ve heard this across the state, is when you discuss your plans, they come back and ask, “Well, why haven’t you done it already.”
HARRIS: Well, I’m not president.
REPORTER: You’re vice president.
HARRIS: Exactly, but I’m going to tell you what I’m doing as president when I have the ability then to do what I know based on my experience is a new approach. It is about building on the good work that has happened, but there’s more to do. There’s more to do.
I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a presidential nominee so routinely express her vapidness in situations where even the most basic amount of preparation could have avoided embarrassment. This is not a new question. It’s something she’s been asked many times over the last three months, and each and every time, she has nothing coherent to say. I think an AI text generator could come up with a better response than “Well, I’m not president” and “I’m going to tell you what I’m doing as president when I have the ability.”
On the merits, what words she did string together don’t begin to pass muster either. Is the suggestion that Harris has had all these supposedly amazing ideas to help Americans sitting around for four years, but President Joe Biden just wouldn’t let her implement any of them? I’ve been assured he is the greatest president in modern history. How can that be if he prevented grocery prices from being lowered and kept housing prices high?
To be clear, that’s not my read of the situation. That’s what Harris is telling us by claiming that the only reason nothing has gotten done is because Biden is president and she’s not. Still, the idea that the vice president holds no responsibility for the failures of the administration she works for is laughable. There’s passing the buck, and there’s whatever that is. I give the reporter credit for asking the question because it is one of the most relevant of the cycle.
Harris continued from there by doing what she always does when she doesn’t have a good answer to a question: She fell back on her oft-repeated, scripted lines.
Reporter: “Why haven’t you done any of it already?”
Kamala: “I’m not President”
Reporter: “You’re Vice President.”
Kamala: “I’m gonna tell you what I’m doing as president when I have the ability, then, to do what I know based on my experience.” pic.twitter.com/7oFMAq6P5C
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) October 29, 2024
REPORTER: What is your message to Michigan voters in terms of the economy? We have auto workers who are being laid off, and those who fear that they might be laid off. The average person can’t afford groceries or their rent, and recent polls in Michigan show that Michigan voters believe that Donald Trump would do a better job with handling the economy and bringing jobs back. What do you say to that?
HARRIS: Well, let’s start with this. I come from the middle class, and I’ll never forget where I come from. My mother worked very hard. She, by the time I was a teenager, was able to save up for her first home.
I’ve lost track of how many times Harris has responded to a direct question about how she’ll fix the economy by filibustering with tales of her supposed “middle-class” upbringing. To be sure, she was not really “middle class.” She was born the child of two upper-class professionals, including a cancer researcher and a tenured professor. Harris would go on to spend a significant part of her childhood in a Canadian suburb. She did not grow up hard knocks with her mother struggling to put food on the table, and it’s insulting that she keeps slumming by pretending she’s something she’s not.
But that’s not even the biggest issue here. Let’s say she did grow up middle-class. What does that have to do with a family in 2024 that can’t afford rent? Is that supposed to make them feel better? It’s lame and tone-deaf to keep using the “middle-class” line over and over instead of just speaking clearly about how to solve the problems facing Americans.
Harris can’t do that, though, because she’s incredibly lazy. A little bit of study and thought, and she could come up with some better deflections, but the vice president won’t even put the time in for that. Instead, she just shows up, repeats her lines, and looks like an imbecile in the process. That is why her campaign is floundering despite having every built-in advantage imaginable.
America can’t afford for more years of this. Having a senile invalid as president was bad enough. The last thing we need is a president who is equally vapid but just sentient enough to cause far more serious damage to the nation.
