During an interview with NBC News after Tuesday’s debate, Harris-Walz Campaign Surrogate California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) responded to criticism of 2024 Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris avoiding questions and lacking a lot of policy in the debate by stating that “you got contrast.” And “If the purpose tonight was to win the debate, to show she’s a commander-in-chief, to show she has character and temperance, to show that she can take on a bully like Donald Trump and put him on the defense so she can take on the dictators around the rest of the globe and lead this nation, I think she did it.”
Newsom said that Harris “not only made the case against Donald Trump, she also prosecuted the case for the future. She kept looking in the camera and talking about you, talking about me, talking about the issues that matter to the American people on affordability, on housing, on child care. She was consistent in painting, not only a picture of the current administration and the context of the accomplishments of Biden-Harris, but the pivot to a framework of a compelling future, about the next four years, [which], at the end of the day, is what this election is about.”
Host Tom Llamas then said, “She was so, disciplined’s the word. Every time she was asked a question, she’d almost answer it first about Trump, and then maybe go into her response. And if you were looking for policy, you didn’t get a whole lot of policy, to be quite fair. You got some of it towards the second hour, but this was a lot about the Trump administration.”
Newsom responded, “Well, you got contrast. Chuck was absolutely right, it wasn’t a criticism, Chuck, I think was making about President Biden on the issue of abortion. It was a compliment to Vice President Harris, her ability to bring you into the story, to tell a story, to humanize an issue. She did that across the spectrum of issues. He was on the defensive from day one. She won the debate. If the purpose tonight was to win the debate, to show she’s a commander-in-chief, to show she has character and temperance, to show that she can take on a bully like Donald Trump and put him on the defense so she can take on the dictators around the rest of the globe and lead this nation, I think she did it. And she also did this: She talked about all of us, not just some of us. I thought the best parts of the debate were at the end when she was talking about the issues of race and talking about moving away from divisiveness and talking down to people and past people and the fact that we’re all in this together and we’re all better off when we’re all better off. It was a fantastic night.”
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