By One of the top Republicans took to one of the biggest news shows to point out the obvious: media outlets are not examining Vice President Kamala Harris and she refuses to do anything unscripted. Tom Cotton, a senator from Arkansas, explained that so far the media has been disinterested in scrutinizing Harris with the same rigor as other presidential candidates since her elevation to the top of the Democratic ticket two weeks ago.
Despite her new status following President Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the race, Harris has avoided sit-down interviews and has rarely faced questions from the press, yet has received minimal criticism for her lack of availability.
When asked about Harris narrowing the gap with former President Donald Trump in a CBS News-YouGov poll on CBS News’s Face the Nation, Cotton acknowledged the likelihood of a close race but emphasized that Harris has not been adequately questioned by the media.
The Washington Examiner writes that Senator Tom Cotton took to one of the biggest news shows in the country to point out the media’s lack of interest in the Democratic nominee.
“She hasn’t answered a single question. Not one single question by the media. And you don’t have one single unscripted moment Thursday night at Andrews Air Force Base, welcoming this hostages back and she served up the kind of incomprehensible word salad for which she has become famous,” Cotton said.
The Arkansas senator also pointed out that Harris will have to answer for her policy positions once she is questioned in interviews and other settings by the press, which will help Trump — according to Cotton’s belief.
“So we knew this race was going to be close all along, whoever the Democrats wanted to put up against President Trump, but Kamala Harris has been the nominee for two weeks and hasn’t answered a single question. When the American people get a better look at her and her radical positions,” Cotton said. “I think you’re gonna see that they don’t want her to continue the Biden-Harris legacy.”
“I think it’s incumbent upon the media to hold Kamala Harris to the same standard that every other nominee who earned their nomination has ever been held to, Donald Trump in ’16, Barack Obama in ’08,” Cotton said, pointing to the town hall events and other opportunities where a presidential campaign gets questioned on their policies.
“For two weeks, she’s dodged the press. She can’t dodge the press for another 13 weeks,” Cotton said.
Tom Cotton: “When the American people get a better look at her radical positions I think you’re going to see that they don’t want her to continue the Biden-Harris legacy.”
Face The Nation’s Ed O’Keefe: You’ve done a decent job of explaining the policy differences between the fmr… pic.twitter.com/ONmJhc7VNC
— Eddie (@Eddies_X) August 4, 2024
While many liberal-leaning outlets do not like it, calling it “going low,” Trump has been straightforward in explaining why he thinks Harris will not do unscripted events—she’s just not that bright.
Politico writes, “In a succession of Truth Social posts after calling off his planned ABC debate with Harris, Trump called Harris “low IQ,” “dumb,” and said she lacked the “mental capacity” to debate him.
‘Does anyone notice that Kamala Harris doesn’t do Interviews? That’s because she’s really DUMB! She’s unable to speak properly without a Teleprompter,’ Trump, who also routinely employs a teleprompter at his rallies, posted on Truth Social, comparing her speaking abilities to those of President Joe Biden and attaching a clipped video of the two welcoming prisoners freed from Russia back to American soil.”
Harris has been criticized for the brief moment she spoke to the media unscripted last week in which the Democratic nominee said, “‘This is just an extraordinary testament to the importance of having a president who understands the power of diplomacy and understands the strength that rests in understanding the significance of diplomacy and strengthening alliances. It is just an incredible day.”
Before being handed the nomination unchallenged following Joe Biden quitting the race, many Democrats had pushed for Harris to be dropped from the ticket altogether.
A one-time staffer of the vice president claimed in 2022, for example, that Harris often refuses “to do the kind of preparation that you need to do before going public on a hardcore policy matter. And then she became incensed and outraged when things wouldn’t go the way she thought they were supposed to,” which leads her to be incomprehensible.
“There was a lot of magical thinking,” added the person, who spent years working for Harris. “I think it’s helpful for people to know,” the former Harris aide went on to Whipple, “that this is not new, and it will inhibit any administration that she is the leader of.”
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