Kamala Harris is way behind the eight ball in terms of interviews compared to Trump and Vance.
She has had a media blitz over the last two weeks, mostly with friendly media, but one of those “friendly” interviews did not go quite as planned.
Talking Points...
- Harris polling creates urgency
- Charlamagne Tha God presses Harris
- Analysis
Kamala Harris continues to lead Trump in national polling, currently holding a 2.6% edge in the national average with some very positive recent polls. TIPP Insights, which just came out, has Harris leading Trump 50%—46 %. YouGov gave the same margin, showing Harris ahead 49%—45%. In most of the previous polls, Harris was only up by 3%, so she is expanding her lead.
But, as we all know, this race is won in battleground states, and that news is not so positive for Harris. Trump needs to split Arizona and Nevada, and in the latest polls, Trump is leading Harris by two points in Arizona and trailing her by one point in Nevada. Trump also needs to split Michigan and Pennsylvania. In the last polls taken, Trump was down by one point in Michigan, and he was down by four points in Pennsylvania. For the above scenario to work, Trump must win North Carolina, where he is currently ahead by two points. He must also win Georgia, where he is also ahead by two points.
The wildcard in the race is Wisconsin, another Blue Wall state, where Trump has come back from the dead to lead Harris by one point. If the races hold as they currently are, even with Trump losing both Michigan and Pennsylvania but winning Wisconsin while taking Georgia and North Carolina, he comes in at 272 and wins the presidency, so you can see why Harris has such urgency right now.
Harris surely thought this interview would be a cakewalk, but to his credit, Charlamagne Tha God is not an easy out for anyone. He clearly wants Harris to win, but he did not let her off the hook without pushing back on certain issues. For instance, when Harris started rambling on about reparations, Charlamagne Tha God accused her of conducting a “filibuster.” He also went after Harris on the border, telling her:
“But doesn’t the Biden administration have to take some blame for the border, though? A lot of the blame — because, I mean, the first three years y’all did get a lot of things wrong with the border.”
He also hit her on locking up black men in California for marijuana offenses, which she again pivoted away, not really giving an answer. That brought out more criticism by Charlamagne, who accused her of stiff answers that were nothing but rehearsed talking points, to which Harris responded, “that would be called discipline,” insisting that she needs to say the same things over and over again to make sure people understand them, stating:
“There are certain things that must be repeated to ensure that I have everyone know what I stand for and the issues that I think are at stake in this election. And so it requires repetition.”
Harris does interviews like this because she wants to seem more likable, but it never seems to work. For example, that last comment comes off as condescending. Her lack of real answers is also hurting her. In most cases, she is not called out over it, but Charlamagne did call her out several times during this interview.
Harris still has the benefit that most of the mainstream media give her a pass, but she is not in good shape here. That is not to suggest that Trump is in the driver’s seat because he is not. While I like the trend in polls for Trump right now, that could easily change with one giant misstep. I think the Harris interview on Fox News tonight could be a decider, so we will recheck the polls early next week to see how much of an impact it had on this race.
