Kamala Harris brutally mocked for ‘weak’ choice to interview Tim Walz: ‘She can’t be left alone’
Kamala Harris is facing backlash from Republican strategists over her decision to bring along her buddy Tim Walz for her first interview since her stunning move to become the Democratic presidential nominee.
“I think it’s incredibly lame, lame sauce to show up with your running mate,” said Scott Jennings, a former White House official under George W. Bush. told CNNwhere he serves as a commentator. He said the move showed a “disturbing lack of confidence in her political prowess.”
“The fact that they don’t have enough confidence in her to sit her down, the real top of the ticket, and give her one interview,” he continued, speaking on Anderson Cooper’s evening network program. “I think even the whining and the bickering about this over the last month shows a disturbing lack of confidence in her political abilities,” he added.
“I think the Republicans think it’s pretty weak to show up with someone who takes up half the time,” he said.
Harris has been under mounting pressure to answer persistent questions about her plans since President Joe Biden abandoned his own reelection campaign on July 21. As weeks passed without any response, she faced demands to do so through a channel that would subject her to rigorous questioning.
Team effort: Vice President Kamala Harris is being criticized for including her running mate Tim Walz in her CNN interview, her first since Joe Biden ended his campaign
After Harris promised to give an interview by the end of the month, the Harris campaign decided to air an interview on CNN Thursday night with the network’s chief political correspondent and anchor Dana Bash.
While some commentators have touted the venue as favorable, former President Donald Trump praised moderators Jake Tapper and Bash’s questions during the June debate, which helped push Biden out of the race.
Trump told his supporters not to criticize the network because they “treated him very fairly last” during the debate. “They were both very professional,” he added.
Conservative commentators who had urged Harris to appear on camera attacked the format. “LOL, a joint interview. She simply can’t be left unattended,” wrote Jeff Behar of the National Review.
Jennings’ fellow panelist Maria Cardona disputed his analysis, saying the selection reflected a “compressed time frame” and that viewers were eager to hear from Walz.
“By doing an interview with her and her vice presidential nominee together, voters will have a chance, I think, to hear not only from her, but from the vice presidential nominee, and what they’re going to do as a team,” she said.
Harris is speaking as she has surged in the polls since adopting Biden as her nominee. She holds a small lead in a range of national polls, but it remains to be seen what kind of bounce she got from her convention and whether it will last.
She has also opened up small leads in some of the swing states, pushing others into the toss-up column. Tuesday’s Cook Political Report moved North Carolina into toss-up status, the latest indication of how Harris has expanded the battlefield compared to Biden.
Republican strategist Scott Jennings called the move “weak sauce” in his own appearance on CNN
Host Anderson Cooper questioned commentators, including Democratic strategist Maria Cardona, about the move, which has not ended calls for Harris to do a solo interview
Some top forecasters are already to predict That resilience will disappear within a few weeks.
In that environment, Harris risks jeopardizing her successful strategy and her congressional gains if she goes off-script, as she did in her 2021 interview, when she answered questions from NBC’s Lester Holt about whether she would go to the border.
“We’ve been to the border,” she told him as he pressed her, adding, “And I haven’t been to Europe.”
It’s not just Harris who can use Walz as a shield. Walz faces potential questions about how he described his 24-year stint in the National Guard and his decision to come out of retirement to run for Congress months before his unit deployed to Iraq. And while he’s spent a dozen years in Congress, he’s not immersed in all the national policy battles and Harris’s still-evolving agenda.
The two traveled together for the Democratic convention in Chicago and will be campaigning again today in Savannah, Georgia — another state Democrats believe is back in play with Harris and Walz on the ticket.
DailyMail.com contacted Harris about the format and whether she will apply solo in the future.