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The Media Sure Are Noticing a Key Concern About the Harris Campaign

Rebecca Downs
Rebecca Downs  |  October 07, 2024 6:15 PM

When President Joe Biden was forced out of the race by his fellow Democrats, there was enthusiasm for Vice President Kamala Harris replacing him. This wasn't so much due to Harris herself, but more so because she was someone other than Biden. Less than a month away from Election Day, though, Harris isn't where she needs to be in the polls against former and potentially future President Donald Trump, and she's not doing what she needs to be doing. The media is noticing, too.

Last Friday, Ward Clark at our sister site of RedState highlighted how "Kamala Harris Is Playing It Safe - but Not for the Reasons Democrats Might Think." He pointed to coverage from NBC News, expressing concerns that voters haven't seen enough of Harris' "authentic self." 

"Harris is playing it safe. Some Democrats worry that could doom her campaign," the NBC News headline read, with subheadline also warning that "Democrats are concerned that she's acting like she's sitting on a lead in a tied race."

That's not a good sign when Harris is the sitting vice president and has been for close to four years and is looking for a promotion by being at the top of the ticket, despite never winning a single primary vote. She keeps talking about plans for "day one," but as Sen. JD Vance (R-OH) reminded in late August, "day one was 1,300 days ago!" 

"You've been vice president for three and a half years, what the hell have you been doing during all that time? The message from the state of Michigan is: you had your chance, you FAILED and we're not giving you a promotion," he went on to say. It's a line he, and many other Republicans, continue to go with in the final weeks of this election. 

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Clark also offered voters have seen Harris' "authentic self," and it's not a good look for her. Her answers to interviewers questions come off terribly, and while we can laugh about her answers focusing on having a middle-class upbringing, it's not true. Even the liberal media, including Harris' allies, recognize the problems of such a tactic. 

Further, a tied race, or even one where she's only just slightly ahead of Trump, is a very bad look for Harris. Trump tends to overperform in the polls, especially with his 2016 win against Hillary Clinton, though he also lost to Biden by smaller margins in 2020 than the polls predicted. There's also the electoral college.

As the piece warned:

WASHINGTON — Even as polling shows the presidential race is a toss-up, Vice President Kamala Harris has been running with a measure of risk aversion that some Democratic strategists and activists worry has failed to fully capitalize on the excitement surrounding her entry into the race in July.

Until this point, Harris has largely eschewed freewheeling interactions with voters like town hall-style events or interviews with the media that could offer a sense of her authentic self and make people more comfortable with her abrupt emergence at the top of the ticket, these Democrats say.

"They're trying to keep her away," Steve Shurtleff, a former Democratic speaker of the New Hampshire House of Representatives, said of the Harris campaign. "It's like seeing your favorite Hollywood actor and then they're on a talk show and they can't even speak.

“The president of the United States has to be able to be on their toes all the time and answer questions,” he added. “It’s so obvious she’s been avoiding the one-on-one interviews, and the voters deserve better.”

Harris campaign aides say she will venture into new forums in the coming weeks, a chance to reveal more about her temperament and character. She is giving an interview to CBS News' “60 Minutes” as part of an election special that will air next week. And she is expected to appear on late-night talk shows, as will her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.

Open questions at this late stage of the race are whether Harris can rely on her early momentum and whether she can reach and leave a favorable impression on that sliver of the electorate that hasn’t yet made up its mind.

Harris' allies have touted her media interviews, but they've been with particularly friendly outlets. Even then, the Democratic nominee has done pretty terribly, as she did with Oprah and MSNBC's Stephanie Ruhle. 

Harris also recorded her appearance on the "Call Her Daddy" sex podcast on Tuesday, which was almost all about Democrats' pet issue of abortion. Adding insult to injury, she did such a recording in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, and as Hurricane Milton is making its way to Florida. 

Further, the Trump-Vance outperformed the Harris-Walz campaign on interviews, as Axios highlighted last month, and that continues to be the case. 

Harris has also been rather picky about her campaign schedule. Next weekend, Trump will show up to the Al Smith dinner in New York City benefiting Catholic Charities. The vice president has declined to participate, and instead will be campaigning in swing states. Timothy Cardinal Dolan, the archbishop of New York, noted that he was told this could be coming from the campaign rather than Harris, but it's still not a good look. 

The NBC News piece also highlighted concerns with Harris' running mate, Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN):

Walz’s performance at the vice presidential debate Tuesday kindled fresh doubts on the part of the Democratic faithful. He exhibited the caution that some Democrats say has hamstrung the campaign. In a competent if mostly workmanlike showing, Walz looked as if the campaign had sanded down the natural exuberance he displayed when Harris picked him to be the vice presidential nominee.

“It’s been a mistake to shield Walz and Harris from interviews,” a Democratic lawmaker said. “It’s like playing basketball — if you don’t play for weeks, you’re not going to get it into a game and do well. You’ve got to be on the court.

“I would have them out there very extensively,” the lawmaker added.

Such an NBC News piece is noteworthy all on its own, but it's not even the only one. Earlier on Monday, Matt covered how POLITICO on Saturday morning put out a headline just full of panic, "Trump is everywhere. Anxious Dems wonder why Harris isn't."

As that piece begins:

Democratic operatives, including some of Kamala Harris’ own staffers, are growing increasingly concerned about her relatively light campaign schedule, which has her holding fewer events than Donald Trump and avoiding unscripted interactions with voters and the press almost entirely.

In interviews with POLITICO, nearly two dozen Democrats described Harris as running a do-no-harm, risk-averse approach to the race they fear could hamper her as the campaign enters its final 30-day stretch.

On Monday, The Nation put out an article referencing POLITICO, with a headline on how "Kamala Harris Is Taking a Big Risk by Playing It Safe." 

Such a piece was among those laughably mentioning friendly interviews as a way Harris is trying to get herself out there, but there were warnings and lamentations here as well, from October surprises, to acknowledgments that Harris is not where she needs to be among key demographics.

As the piece mentioned:

The problem with a let-sleeping-dogs lie strategy is that you cannot control outside events. October in a presidential year is famously a month of surprises. Last week, a dockworker’s strike threatened to upend the economy—a danger only averted when the union agreed to postpone the strike until January. Th situation in the Middle East presents an even greater possibility of events spiralling out of control. Israel’s onslaught against Gaza has already spread into a larger regional conflict that now includes the still-expanding war in Lebanon as well as missile exchanges with Iran.

...

Playing it safe and pursuing Never Trump Republicans might make sense if Harris had a healthy lead and the Democratic base were solidly on board and energized. But, sadly, this is far from the case.

Harris is still not where she needs to be with Black voters, Latino voters, young voters, or working-class voters. These are the groups the Harris campaign must focus on energizing. Given that fact, pursuing Never Trump Republicans by praising Dick Cheney is an act of folly, as Dave Zirin recently noted in The Nation. Never Trump Republicans are very few in number—Liz Cheney’s defeat in 2022 may have been the biggest primary loss by an incumbent in this century—and catering to their agenda risks alienating core Democratic constituencies.

The Associated Press focused on how it's not merely Harris who has been a "no-show." That would be Biden when it comes to campaigning for Harris as well. "Biden pledged to campaign hard for Harris. So far, he’s been mostly a no-show," their headline from Saturday read.

Such a move could impact not just the presidential race, the article warns, but House and Senate races as well:

WASHINGTON (AP) — On the last day of August, President Joe Biden was asked about his fall campaign plans. He promised a Labor Day appearance in Pittsburgh and said he would be “on the road from there on.”

Biden did campaign with Vice President Kamala Harris on Labor Day, but he largely has been a campaign no-show since. Beyond that, sometimes his official events push hers to the background.

Case in point: After Hurricane Helene, Harris scrapped campaign events in Las Vegas to hurry back to Washington for a briefing at the Federal Emergency Management Agency. But as Harris stepped to a podium in the command center, Biden was delivering his own storm response comments from the Oval Office, pulling the political spotlight away from his intended successor.

The lack of presidential campaigning and occasional schedule clashes could matter not just for Harris but as Democrats try to hold control of the Senate and retake the House and compete in races further down the ballot.

The piece has a section on how "It can be tricky juggling being president and campaigning for someone new," except Harris isn't "someone new." She is the sitting vice president, and Biden picked her as his running mate for 2020 and was prepared to keep her on the ticket for reelection. He even endorsed her as his successor.

Biden has been mentioning Harris lately, including just during Friday's press briefing, when he made an appearance. He also did so last month, when referencing her during his appearance on "The View." Such moves look to be Biden throwing Harris under the bus, though. And, that article from The Nation closed by calling for Harris to break from the president. 

Stay tuned for coverage from Guy on more about how Harris is not too thrilled with Biden right now, especially as the Democratic nominee needs to distance herself from the current and particularly unpopular president.