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Somebody give Bill Whitaker a prize. In his 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris, which aired last night, the CBS correspondent did what no other journalist has successfully done since the vice president was thrust to the top of the Democratic ticket: journalism. He asked Harris challenging questions about the matters voters care about most. He was civil, unaggressive, but professional enough to push her for clear answers. And Harris just couldn’t cope. Her performance was Prince Andrew-like in its awfulness.
That caused the Harris-bot to malfunction
On immigration, for instance, Whitaker asked Harris why the Biden-Harris administration had only recently started tackling the issue, after almost four years and an unprecedented surge in illegal border crossings. Harris robotically blamed Congress and Donald Trump, “who wants to run on a problem instead of fixing a problem, so he told his buddies in Congress, ‘kill the bill, don’t let it move forward.’”
Whitaker was not deterred. “But there was an historic flood of undocumented immigrants coming across the border the first three years of your administration,” he continued. “As a matter of fact, arrivals quadrupled from the last year of President Trump. Was it a mistake to loosen immigration policies as much you did?”
That caused the Harris-bot to malfunction. “It’s a longstanding problem,” she warbled. “And solutions are at hand and from day one, literally, we have been offering solutions…”
So Whitaker interrupted: “What I was asking was, was it a mistake to allow that kind of flood to happen in the first place?”
“I think the policies that we have been promoting have been about fixing a problem, not promoting a problem,” she added.
“But the numbers did quadruple under your watch?” tried Whitaker, again.
Harris, ruffled, returned to square one: “And the numbers today… because of what we have done, we have cut the flow of illegal immigration, we have cut the flow of fentanyl, but we need Congress to act.”
Oh dear. That’s Harris’s overwhelming weakness as a political candidate. She can talk in soundbites and managerial slogans about “solutions not problems,” but on issues of substance she can’t actually offer any solutions, which is a problem.
On the war in the Middle East, Harris was asked if the US has “no sway” over Israel’s leader Benjamin Netanyahu, who has accepted billions of dollars of American aid but seems to be ignoring Washington’s calls for a ceasefire.
“The work that we do diplomatically with the leadership of Israel is an ongoing pursuit around making clear our principles,” said Harris, gnomically.
Again, Whitaker pressed: “But it seems that Prime Minister Netanyahu isn’t listening?”
“We’re not going to stop pursuing what is necessary for the United States to be clear about where we stand on the need for this war to end.”
Moving awkwardly on, Whitaker turned to the economy, and again Harris offered only platitudes. “My plan is about saying that when you invest in small businesses, you invest in the middle class and you strengthen America’s economy,” she said. “Small businesses are part of the backbone of America’s economy,” she restated. Quizzed on how America might fund her trillion-dollar spending plans, she said she would make the rich “pay their fair share.”
When confronted by a serious journalist asking serious questions, she melts
“We’re dealing with the real world here,” said Whitaker. “How are you going to get this through Congress?” Harris replied that she “cannot afford to be myopic… I am a public servant, I am also a capitalist” — as if that clarified things.
Perhaps the most revealing moment was when Whitaker asked Harris why voters say they don’t know what she stands for. “It’s an election, Bill,” she said, with a dead smile. Whitaker then mentioned her flip-flops on issues such as fracking, immigration and Medicare.
“In the last four years I have been vice president of the United States and I have been traveling our country and I have been listening to folks and seeking what is possible in terms of common ground,” she replied. “I believe in building consensus. We are a diverse people. Geographically, regionally, in terms of where we are in our backgrounds and what the American people do want is that we have leaders who can build consensus, where we can compromise and understand it’s not a bad thing as long as you don’t compromise to find common sense solutions. And that has been my approach.”
Harris’s campaign recognizes that a majority of Americans don’t feel they know or can trust Harris. That’s why she is now on what her team is calling a “media blitz.” But the clarity never comes. On MSNBC last week, she used the word “holistic” three times to describe her housing policy. At the weekend, she did the Call Her Daddy podcast with Alex Cooper, who asked how it feels to be attacked for being childless and why men get to decide what women do with their bodies. Harris was comfortable spluttering bromides in response. When confronted by a serious journalist asking serious questions, however, she melts.
In the hours before the 60 Minutes interview aired, the betting markets spiked in Donald Trump’s favor. Gamblers understand that the more voters see of Harris, the less they hear — and that’s an issue which is only going to worsen in the last three weeks of her campaign.
This article was originally published on The Spectator’s UK website.
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