Polling shows that while sitting Vice President Kamala Harris might have won Tuesday’s presidential debate on points, she whiffed on the opportunity to satisfy voters with policies beyond platitudes about federal laws against price gouging and $25,000 checks for first-time homebuyers — two things that will never happen.
Rasmussen Reports asked 881 likely voters on September 5 and 8-10, 2024, “How important is it for Harris to give interviews to the news media?”
A whopping 78 percent said it was very (54 percent) or somewhat (24 percent) important. Only 19 percent said it was not very (13 percent) or not at all (six percent) important.
When asked how they would rate the job Harris has done “outlining her specific policy ideas,” a majority of 51 percent said fair (nine percent) to poor (42 percent), while 47 percent said excellent (25 percent) or good (22 percent).
This poll was taken before Tuesday night’s debate, but one of the narratives coming out of that debate is Harris refusing to answer specific questions about her policy proposals. If anything, the debate likely reinforced people’s concerns about her lack of specificity.
As far as media interviews, with more than 50 days to go before the election, one wonders how long she can hold out. My guess is that if she sees herself ahead in the polls, she will hold out indefinitely. Why not? Why risk damaging herself? Plus, she knows the corporate media will never put any pressure on her or make her pay a political price for avoiding them. The corporate media are her communications team.
Harris has not done a single solo interview since she became the Democrat nominee. She has only done a single interview with her running mate, Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN), on CNN. She will not even sit down with friendly media. Walz has done only three interviews. This isn’t a basement campaign. While campaigning from his basement in 2020, President Joe Biden did media interviews. This is more like a hermetically sealed campaign.
Meanwhile, former President Donald Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-OH), is all over the media. He’s done dozens of interviews, many of them on hostile outlets, like CNNLOL. Trump is always ready to take questions from the media in his pool and has sat for hour-plus interviews with podcasters more than once.
Harris’s strategy of avoiding interviews is risky, but with the media on her side, she can get away with anything.
John Nolte’s first and last novel, Borrowed Time, is winning five-star raves from everyday readers. You can read an excerpt here and an in-depth review here. Also available in hardcover and on Kindle and Audiobook.
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