Kamala Harris sat for her first solo interview, and yes, it was a mess
Describing Harris’s answer in a post on X, The National Review’s Noah Rothman wrote, “It takes some species of talent to filibuster for 90 straight seconds while saying nothing [at] all of value.”
Vice President Kamala Harris sat down for her first solo interview on Friday with Brian Taff, an anchor with Action News 6 ABC, a local station in Philadelphia. It did not go well.
Taff opened the discussion by noting that voters want to know more about Harris and her specific plans. He asked, “When we talk about bringing down prices and making life more affordable for people, what are one or two specific things you have in mind for that?”
Harris replied, “Well, we’ll start with this. I grew up a middle class kid. My mother raised my sister and me. She worked very hard. She was able to finally save up enough money to buy our first house when I was a teenager. I grew up in a community of hardworking people. You know, construction workers and nurses and teachers. I try to explain to some people who might not have had the same experience, but a lot of people will relate to this.”
She continued, “You know, I grew up in a neighborhood of folks who were very proud of their lawn. Ya know? And I was raised to believe and to know that all people deserve dignity and that we as Americans have a beautiful character. You know, we have ambitions and aspirations and dreams, but not everyone necessarily has access to the resources that can help them fuel those dreams and ambitions. So, when I talk about building an opportunity economy, it is very much with the mind of investing in the ambitions and aspirations and the incredible work ethic of the American people and creating opportunity for people, for example, to start a small business.”
She then spoke of her neighbor, the small business owner she mentioned during the debate, with whom she was very close. She went off on a tangent about the importance of small businesses which she said are “so much of the fabric of our communities” and “the backbone of America’s economy.” While this is true, I doubt Kamala really believes it.
Two minutes into her response, she said her administration will give startups a $50,000 tax deduction.
After rambling for another minute, she shared her plan to build three million new homes for Americans by the end of her first term.
Three and a half minutes later, she was – mercifully – done with her first answer.
If Harris’s reply sounds familiar to you, it’s because we heard parts of it – almost verbatim – three days earlier, as she tried to dodge a similar question during the debate with former President Donald Trump. In contrast to her surprisingly strong and coherent performance on Tuesday night, her responses throughout this interview were laced with the “word salads” we’ve grown so accustomed to hearing from Harris.
Describing her answer in a post on X, The National Review’s Noah Rothman wrote, “It takes some species of talent to filibuster for 90 straight seconds while saying nothing [at] all of value.”
Oh my goodness this is an absolute train wreck.
Reporter: What are your specific plans to bring down prices?
Kamala: "I grew up a middle class kid… I grew up in a neighborhood of folks who were very proud of their lawn. Ya know?"pic.twitter.com/lhOdWoygy2
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) September 13, 2024
Next, Taff referenced her focus “on turning the page on the past” and the campaign slogan, “a new way forward.”
“Some people have a question,” he said, “given your role as current Vice President of the United States, how different you are from Joe Biden. I wonder if there are one or two spots, policy areas or approaches where you would say, ‘I’m a different person.'”
Again, she sidestepped the question. Before launching into a discussion of “an opportunity economy” and other topics Taff did not ask her about, Harris replied, “I’m obviously not Joe Biden. I offer a new generation of leadership.”
Kamala: "For example, thinking about developing and creating an opportunity economy where it's about investing in areas that really need a lot of work and maybe focusing on again the aspirations and the dreams but also just recognizing that at this moment in time some of this… pic.twitter.com/imSwSCbEHw
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) September 13, 2024
Reporter: How are you different from Joe Biden?
Kamala: *Nervously repeats herself and fails to explain how she’s different from Joe Biden* pic.twitter.com/ALh0vE5aZh
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) September 13, 2024
Taff said Harris had surprised a lot of people on Tuesday night when she said she was a gun owner. He then asked her where she draws the line on gun ownership and gun use.
After ensuring that “[w]e’re not taking anybody’s guns away,” Harris provided an actual answer. She wants to implement a ban on assault weapons.
She said, “I support the Second Amendment and I support reasonable gun safety laws. … I was a career prosecutor. … I have personally looked at autopsies. I have personally seen what assault weapons do to the human body. And so, I feel very strongly that it is consistent with the Second Amendment and your right to own a gun to also say, ‘We need an assault weapons ban.’ They’re literally tools of war. They were literally designed to kill a lot of human beings quickly. … ”
Next, Taff asked Harris what she understand’s Trump’s “appeal to be and how do you speak to his voters or maybe to people who share his values, but are open to something else.”
“I, based on experience, and a lived experience, know in my heart, I know in my soul, I know, that the vast majority of us as Americans have so much more in common than what separates us,” she replied, repeating a platitude we’ve heard for the umpteenth time.
Then she rattled off a list of Republicans who support her, including former Vice President Dick Cheney, and took a few shots at Trump.
“What do you understand [President Trump's] appeal to be and how do you speak to his voters?”
KAMALA: *word salad* pic.twitter.com/66jQazkjRo
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) September 13, 2024
Harris rambled and dodged her way through a softball interview that lasted for ten excruciating minutes. In the end, it only served to remind us why her campaign is so reluctant to put her into unscripted situations.
After holing up in a hotel room for five days, committing talking points to memory and even practicing her entrance onto the debate stage and her handshake with Trump, she had managed to shine for 90 minutes.
But, within the first 60 seconds of this interview, it was clear that Tuesday night had been an anomaly. Her answers consisted of snippets of the lines she had memorized for the debate in between the word salads she’s become so famous for.
Fox News host Jesse Watters summed up the event perfectly: “Kamala Harris bombed her first solo interview.”
I’ll leave you with this. At a Johnstown bookstore on Friday, Harris was asked how she felt about her chances in the state, Harris replied, “I am feeling very good about Pennsylvania because there are a lot of people in Pennsylvania who deserve to be seen and heard.”
Yes, it was a mess.
Kamala Harris can't say a single reason why Pennsylvania should vote for her: pic.twitter.com/3VacoGTijy
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) September 13, 2024
Elizabeth writes commentary for The Washington Examiner. She is an academy fellow at The Heritage Foundation and a member of the Editorial Board at The Sixteenth Council, a London think tank. Please follow Elizabeth on X or LinkedIn.
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Comments
Unfortunately, no one saw it
People are seeing it online. It is going to be a hit because it’s pretty funny stuff.
Yes but it will not change anyone’s voting preference which is unfortunate. Dislike Trump all you want with his rambling answers but he does answer. Kamala is a Word Salad Genius with nothing. I’d like to find out exactly what firearms she owns and how long she has owned them. Not saying she doesn’t or her husband doesn’t but I’m interested in the training she has and since she is in DC where they are stored.
Harris should have been asked: “Can you define, specifically, what makes an ‘assault weapon’ an ‘assault weapon’?”
If a Navy Captain can’t put a scope on correctly what chance does dingdong have of answering that?
It’s black and scary-looking?
That is what she has been doing for 4 years. She never actually answers questions, just spews her talking points and talking in circles. Classic Kamala.
Don’t think so
Agreed. Clips of this interview will be online. Podcasts and reactor channels on YouTube will highlight the vapid Cray Cray. Especially the nonsense about a renewal of the ‘assault weapon’ ban. The GoA if not the NRA will make that an issue.
The legacy media of broadcast TV, Cable ‘news’ and print no longer have a stranglehold on what gets reported. Anyone with a camera (which is in nearly every cellphone) can upload vids/pics, post their ideas on X (Twitter) and so on. There are lots of podcasts and YouTube content creators with several 100K subscribers more than a few with a million plus.
Someone pointed out on X earlier today that the clip that actually aired on the evening news was heavily edited, with Harris’ word salad completely excised. The only people in that TV’s broadcast area that saw the worst parts of the interview are the ones who watched it in its entirety….available only online.
What’s the best dressing for word salad? Just asking.
.
Communism.
Considering her Canadian upbringing, how about Thousand Island, eh?
I think Green Goddess is more appropriate.
Reporter: What are your specific plans to bring down prices?
Kamala: “I grew up a middle class kid… I grew up in a neighborhood of folks who were very proud of their lawn. Ya know?”
The secret ingredient to Kamala’s word salad is the onion she carries on her belt.
(She doesn’t have a white one, because of the war… on the white middle class.)
https://x.com/amwick2/status/1834919647935705286
Shinola.
President Trump was right not to debate again. No more staged shows that allow her to regurgitate pre-written answers with a chorus to echo her attacks. Now Harris has to do interviews for exposure. The more she speaks, the worse for her.
Just saw a nauseating commercial for Harris on Wisconsin/Alabama football game
Have to say, I haven’t seen any Trump ads
At all
Because all of the campaign money that his supporters give goes to pay his legal bills, not for campaign ads.
The reason that he must spend the money does not bother you. Interesting.
I would like to know how she defines “middle class”. She went to high school in Westmount Canada, one of the fanciest municipalities in all of Canada. Being “proud of their lawn” is an interesting struggling, middle class issue.
She uses that line all the time
Someone should ask her how often she mows her lawn
Doesn’t sound right
Reach For The Top! Go Westmount!
They were proud of their lawns because Luis and Diego busted their butts to keep them looking nice.
That was only from the age of 12. In which San Francisco neighborhood did she live as a child?
It’s not word salad, just unguided niceness. Seeming to mean well is everything with women voters.
LOL.
That is one of the more retarded ideas I have ever run into. Congratulations.
rh comes through with a rare accurate post.
Those women voters you refer to are already convinced. Others see this, including women by the way, and cringe.
Low IQ analysis is not astute, especially when it includes bigotry.
That interview was hysterical!! Classical Komrade Kamala, but with the added thrill of hearing her repeat, verbatim, some of her canned answers from the “debate”. That was too much.
And the word salads are the biggest and best they have ever been … meandering around with English-like utterances that lack rhythm or melody but feel more like some 3 year old banging senselessly on a piano with the parents beaming and boasting about their “Jazz prodigy”. Just sheer stupidity on display.
And she is lucky that most of America, still, doesn’t seem to know that her tales of the neighborhood of her teen years – when her poor, Ph.D. mother toiling like a slave was first able to buy a house … was in CANADA!!! In a pretty nice neighborhood, too, from what I gather. But the word “Canada” never seems to come up and the interviewer seemed oblivious to the fact.
This is exactly what I predicted in the immediate post-debate thread when so many people here were crying and whining about how Komrade Kamala had killed it. I told them that she would be under pressure to start doing real Q+As, press conferences, interviews, etc. and that she would faceplant and be driven back under the rock she crawled out from. We might get to see her try one more of these … maybe. But we all know what is going to happen – and so do the America-hating dem scum trying to use Komrade Kamala to finish off their destruction of America.
“I told them that she would be under pressure to start doing real Q+As, press conferences, interviews, etc. and that she would faceplant and be driven back under the rock she crawled out from.”
We simply doubted the part about the pressure because we remember recent history. No one in the MSM ever pressured Biden to come out of his basement, and so he didn’t have to.
She is not going to appear in any venue where she might get the slightest amount of pressure. Never has, never will.
What’s with those stupid sneakers she’s wearing? I saw this on a TV shot but figured that I must have been mistaken. Is this some sort of new lefty fashion?
And, to go back to the interview, I loved how she mentioned growing up in her teens and then talked about “Americans” … but she wasn’t growing up, then, with any Americans. Some day, someone is going to actually confront her with this. That should be fun to watch.
I don’t know why Trump hasn’t yet
This woman is not an American
She is an American. She is (probably) not a natural born citizen, though, and she was definitely raised mostly in Canada (from age 12 through high school graduation and starting college).
Trump should definitely start talking about Komrade Kamala telling stories about her life in Canada as if she had been in America – to emphasize that Kamala doesn’t have an appreciation for the uniqueness and importance of AMerica, in addition to her trying to pull the wool over Americans’ eyes.
The other odd thing about Kamala’s recollections is that she is so invested, now, in being black, but she never talks about her father. Ever. Never, ever, ever … as if he were dead; Not a word.
She’s definitely not pro=American.
She is REALLY not an American
The key thing about her father is that he said that she was descended from a Jamaican slave owner. I checked when I first heard that years ago, but bet it is hard to find the real evidence any more. I wonder if her supporters might like to hear that?
Donald Harris’ essay from Jan 2019 is online – Reflections of a Jamaican Father
By
Donald J. Harris
He is descended from Jamaican slaves, and one of their owners, as is the case with most descendants of slaves. That’s how slavery worked. His grandmother “Miss Crishy”, was a black woman, the daughter of a “labourer”, which was the term used for a former slave.
NBA and ESPN
It’s all they wear
Cool factor
She’s the cool aunt, you know? Wears Converse All Stars, lets you smoke pot at her house, buying you beer….then you see her on the police reports hooking up with all the high school boys.
And bails you out of jail without telling your parents what you did.
She will wear her Chuck Taylor’s when she receives the Nobel.
Come on, folks. Canada is America. Mexico is America. Even Argentina is America.
“America” is a shorthand term people from the US like to use to refer to themselves, but it’s geographically imprecise and can sometimes be insulting to non-US Americans.
None of those places you have mentioned (and, in fact, no others) actually have “America” in their names. Only America – the United States of AMERICA – does.
Yes, there are South Americans and there are Central Americans and there are North Americans … but the only “Americans” are those citizens of The United States of AMERICA.
Permit me to disagree. You may as well argue that there are no “Asians” because no nation has “Asia” in its name anywhere.
Uh … did you not see that I wrote – let me copy and paste it for you to read AGAIN – “Yes, there are South Americans and there are Central Americans and there are North Americans …”
Yes. There are “Asians” (as that is the actual name of the continent … but what we call “Asians” are more appropriately called “Orientals” and the moniker “Asians” is far too wide to have much of any value. British call Pakistanis and Indians “Asians” but we don’t think of them when we talk of “Asians”. India is more the “sub-continent”, anyway.
In any event, no one calls himself an American except for Americans. Brazilians don’t call themselves “Americans” and neither do Mexicans nor Canadians. You know that. I know that. Everyone knows that only Americans are called “Americans” as shorthand for “citizens of the United States of America”, which is what it would be if one were forced to use the country’s actual name in the label.
You are just arguing for the sake of arguing about something that no one would agree with you on. Find me a place in the world where you say “American” and the person thinks “Venezuelan”. LOL.
You say no one would agree with me on this point, but I have read pieces by several non-US commentators who consider the arrogation of “American” by US residents to be… well, arrogant. Now, perhaps they are all Karens who would complain about anything, but seeing that they have a logical point, and one that costs me neither financially nor morally to accommodate, I try to accommodate it.
Thanks for pointing out that you mentioned North, South, and Central America, but I didn’t miss it. I also didn’t miss your theory that US residents have a special claim to the name “American” because it’s part of their national name. I still think it’s as ridiculous as arguing that my Portuguese Water Dog has more of a claim to the term “dog” than your French Poodle.
Okay, there … You are just being silly, but why don’t you enlighten us all by telling us what you call citizens of the UNited States of America, since you don’t call them “Americans”?? “United States of America people”? “USA citizens”? “United people”?
What is the label you use in discussing Americans that is not “Americans”? Then it should be very easy for you to point me to a few comments you have made at LI where you used this other term for “citizen of the United States of America” instead of the – as you claim – arrogant and incorrect “American”. What is this other label you use to describe “Americans” and show me where you’ve used it.
A better term is “USAns” (pronounced “you essans”).
Seriously? We typically call ourselves Americans; it is the United States of America. If Canadians want to call themselves North Americans (they don’t) but they can, and no one from Canada has an issue with us calling ourselves Americans.
Who do you hang out with, anyway?
Poor thing has to take her handler’s advice and stifle the cackling. A real burden, just awful.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/02/hilarious-white-woman-does-spot-impression-every-kamala/
This is an interesting bit she keeps hammering (even though she knows absolutely nothing about housing and is in an administration with a record of spending tens of billions on EV charging ports while only having built 7 (or 8) and something about rural broadband access with much the same numbers of failure) – which should be mentioned to her some day …
But what is she really talking about with these “three million houses” … this is back to Barky’s old plan to destroy nice suburbs. They want to force nice neighborhoods (but not too nice – not neighborhoods they live in, just neighborhoods where average people can make enough money to escape the filth and insanity of the dem-controlled areas) to house low-income people. They are out to destroy the nice suburbs with low-income housing, denying people the ability to escape the spreading dem cancer. It is insidious and disgusting … but this is what commies do.
If Joe Biden had an illegitimate daughter, she would look like Kamala.
If you grew up where she did in Canada, you would make sure the groundskeeper kept the lawn looking spiffer.
Worth repeating: https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2024/09/06/exclusive-photo-essay-kamala-harriss-middle-class-upbringing-in-westmount-canada/
As for the interview, she is good at memorizing lines. Soon there will be clips of the same answer ad nauseum. But no hand to the chin?
Once again, even ABC could not help her.
Now compare this to Pres. Trump’s hour long speech to the Economic Club of NY and the 18 minutes of follow up questions.
Her barely rehashed answers to the interviewer were pathetic and clearly demonstrates that she has no command of any topic.
“ You know, I grew up in a neighborhood of folks who were very proud of their lawn…”
BREAKING (Must credit P. Moss): Gallup is reporting a 40 point break towards Harris by landscapers nationwide.
Yes … this “small business owner” who had enough free time to take care of the children of the Ph.D. biochemist next door, who was being worked like a slave in the salt mines of Canada’s exclusive districts or Berkeley’s coal mines (we don’t know the approximate time frame on this Mother Number Two) …
Who refers to a friend as a “small business owner”?? Usually people say, “a guy who owned the restaurant” or a “cafe owner” or something like that. No one refers to a person as “a small business owner” … unless she is giving some sort of government speech about … “small business owners”.
What was this “small business” that this lady – “Mama II” – had? Did she make so much money from it that she worked very little and could take care of two girls for nothing while Ph.D. mom had to leave them and scavenge the mean streets for food?
The Democrat propaganda machine, the media, are really having to do some heavy lifting to protect this woman.
The thing is I don’t think they can actually save someone who is even less likeable than Hillary? 🤔 😂
Sure they can. They just have to make sure she never really says anything – and so far they have been successful.
I learned recently that Biden was a “Nine to Five” president. Hillary talked about who would answer the White House phone at four in the morning. I can’t imagine a four AM phone call being answered with “word Salad”. And you can’t write a script for it.
I’ll give you the number for my HMO,
Her interview was incoherent. She’s not “coachable” or “trainable”. She is being installed as puppet. Who pulls the strings?
Same crew pulling Biden’s strings.