The demented felon is scrambling for something, anything, to slow the Kamala-mentum that’s threatening to engulf him. His current shtick, amplified by his lightweight running mate and his MAGA media enablers, is to assail Harris for failing to chat at length with the press corps that he hates.
Three weeks into her sudden candidacy, she has yet to hold a news conference or sit for interviews. Trump thinks he knows why. During his mutual-masturbation marathon with fellow oligarch Elon Musk, he slurred: “She’s not smart. She’s not a smart person, by the way.”
The dolt who thinks that Harris’ crowds are fake and that windmills cause cancer is obviously ill-qualified to judge anyone else’s intelligence. Indeed, right now, Harris is smart enough to know that she doesn’t need to fence with the Fourth Estate.
Seriously, why should she?
She and Coach Walz are packing their rallies, raising piles of money, and stomping Trump’s eggshell ego. And in the scant time since Joe Biden stepped down, she has been quote busy behind the scenes – little things like picking a running mate, uniting the party, talking with donors, stoking grassroots support, crafting a stump speech, planning next week’s national convention, fleshing out a platform. Rest assured, she’ll meet the press on her own timetable. With the wind at her back, she has that luxury.
Does the average targeted voter give a hoot that Harris hasn’t conducted any interviews? Nope. The polls tell the story. She has surged to the lead in three key swing states – Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin. One new survey says that she’s more trusted than Trump on the economy, reversing the traditional GOP-leaning metric. She’s even reportedly tied with Trump in North Carolina, which went red in 2016 and 2020. All told, you’d have a tough time finding a targeted voter who’d say, “I won’t support her until she sits down with The New York Times.”
Harris’ priority this month is to connect with the non-MAGA electorate, and her efforts are paying off. The gatekeepers of the press will have to wait.
As a former political reporter on the campaign trail, I found it a tad painful to write that last sentence. But reality wins out. In our fractured communication environment, there are endless ways to engage directly with persuadable voters, and for persuadable voters to engage with each other – starting with TikTok, targeted texting, tweeting, and interactive Zooming. Especially the latter: Win Black Women, White Dudes for Harris, Latino Men for Harris, Republicans for Harris (70,000 on last night’s call), Dead Heads for Harris, and more. She’s moving up without sitting down for interviews.
Granted, at some point soon, she’ll need to answer valid questions. Why has she changed her position on health insurance (when she briefly ran for president in 2019, she supported the elimination of private coverage)? Why has she changed her position on fracking (pro-ban then, anti-ban now), a key issue in crucial Pennsylvania? Does she differ with Joe Biden on how to handle the Israeli-Palestinian impasse? Should voters believe her current tough-on-the-border TV ads, given her previous stated belief that undocumented immigrants crossing the border should not be charged with crimes?
But I get why she’s wary to engage the press at this time. Her answers on policy will inevitably be sliced and diced and endlessly parsed on page one – whereas Trump’s delusions, fascist rants, and jaw-dropping ignorance (courtesy of climate change, “you’ll have more oceanfront property”) are rarely highlighted because, hey, Trump is Trump and it’s old news that he’s nuts. When Harris leaves the room after her first news conference, the tired old mainstream media bias for “balance” will kick in; reporters always endeavor to demonstrate that they can be tougher on Democrats.
Hence, her strategic August rollout: Introduce herself to persuadable voters on her own terms, stoke Democratic base enthusiasm to the max (especially at next week’s national convention), sustain pedal-to-the metal momentum in the polls…and then meet the press. That way, she’ll be sufficiently cushioned when she inevitably takes some hits.
That’s the plan, and thus far it’s working. As the old saying goes, if it ain’t broke, why fix it?