Now that it looks like former and potentially future President Donald Trump will face Vice President Kamala Harris in November, the mainstream media is bending over backwards to cover for the presumptive Democratic nominee. As Harris looks to distance herself from her own policy positions, she looks to be getting a boost from outlets like the Associated Press, which put out a headline about how "Harris is calibrating her policy pitch for going to battle with Trump."
Harris is calibrating her policy pitch for going to battle with Trump https://t.co/l6yPLIJ4TO
— The Associated Press (@AP) July 31, 2024
The post has earned hundreds of replies taking issue with how the outlet looks to be doing the Harris campaign a favor here. It's not just the headline, though.
As the piece itself also mentioned early on:
WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris is facing the delicate task of calibrating her policy pitch to American voters, a standard task for any White House hopeful but one that comes with additional challenges this year.
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Second, Harris has baggage from her own failed campaign for president before she became Biden’s running mate four years ago. During that Democratic primary, she backed an array of progressive proposals that Republicans have highlighted to paint her as “dangerously liberal.”
Harris has already disavowed some of her earlier positions, such as a ban on fracking and support for single-payer healthcare. And she’s pledging to keep some of Biden’s promises, including no tax increases on anyone making less than $400,000 a year.
When it comes to that claim from Harris' campaign that she's backtracking on how she would ban fracking, something she herself said during her brief run in the 2020 presidential primary there was "no question" about, it's worth being skeptical.
"Everything will have to happen at unprecedented speed because Harris was abruptly thrust into the spotlight after Biden decided to drop his reelection bid a little more than a week ago. Her newly designed campaign website doesn’t even include a policy section," the report goes on to mention, which could be by design so that the campaign has time to cover-up Harris' past views. She did have a policy section on her website for her 2020 campaign, though. She's also been vice president for three and a half years.
The report goes on to tie Harris to Biden further. "Unsurprisingly, Harris has embraced much of the same platform as Biden. In her stump speeches since jumping into the presidential race, she promotes affordable child care, paid family leave and expanded health care," it also read. That doesn't take into account how Harris is to the left of Biden with her particularly liberal record.
And from there, there are also more instances of trying to cover for Harris, especially in contrast to Trump:
Presidential candidates often detail their policy ideas during primaries as they try to differentiate themselves within their party. However, Harris leapfrogged that step this year, and she may face less pressure in the compressed campaign to spell out exactly how new programs will be funded and implemented.
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Although Trump is hardly consistent when it comes to policy proposals, [NRSC's Mike] Berg said there’s more risk to Harris because she’s less well-known and public views on her can still be shaped.
“She’s going to come off as a liar,” he said. “Was she lying then or is she lying now?”
The AP isn't the only outlet to put out such a headline. As Doug P. at our sister site of Twitchy pointed out, The Hill put out a headline, also on Wednesday morning, on how "GOP ready to pounce on Vice President Harris's policy pivots."
"Seizing on another hot-button issue, the Trump campaign launched its first television ad attacking Harris on Tuesday, focusing on her role as Biden’s 'border czar' while mixing images of migrants coming across the border and the vice president dancing," the article also mentioned, with added emphasis, going for yet another buzzword.
GOP ready to pounce on Vice President Harris's policy pivots https://t.co/nxDbLvUGnU
— The Hill (@thehill) July 31, 2024
This tactic is hardly new, though. Last week we saw Axios and other outlets claiming that Harris wasn't actually the border czar, despite how their own previous coverage claimed that she was. GovTrack also deleted their data showing that Harris was the most liberal senator for 2019 and one of the least bipartisan ones.
The New York Post on Tuesday also put out an opinion piece on "Kamalaflage: Dems race to expunge the evidence of Harris’ leftist history," pointing to these examples as well as how other mainstream media outlets fawn over Harris.
In addition to the quotes from Republicans included in such pieces from the AP and The Hill, the RNC is also calling out Harris' liberal record by highlighting how she's avoided the press. On Wednesday, RNC Rapid Response Director Jake Schneider sent out an email addressing "Kamala's Media Blackout: She's Terrified."
The email highlighted Harris' lack of a press conference in the 10 days since Biden dropped out of the presidential race, and asked other key questions. "Is Kamala trying to make history as the first major nominee to take zero questions from the press? Is she concerned she'll be pressed on the coverup of Biden's decline? Is she worried she'll have to defend her indefensible far-left positions and her humiliating failures in office?"