Well, it finally happened.
Vice President Kamala Harris finally gave an interview to the mainstream media for the first time since she became the Democratic presidential nominee. CNN’s Dana Bash interviewed Harris and Tim Walz, the vice presidential nominee, on Thursday afternoon. It aired, unedited, hours later on the network.
And it was fine.
Bash called it "a watershed moment," but really, it was a fairly standard interview on a mainstream network conducted by a mainstream reporter, albeit one padded with commercials and drawn-out pretaped introductory segments. Any other time it wouldn't be a big deal.
This, of course, is not any other time.
Harris didn't take the bait on Trump's racial claims
All of this may not sound like much of a victory, but the way the current media landscape is constructed, it counts as one.
Harris answered Bash’s questions about the border, the economy and her changing positions on issues like the Green New Deal and banning fracking. She said she would appoint a Republican to her Cabinet if elected. She didn’t take the bait when Bash asked about Republican nominee Donald Trump’s bizarre claims that she only recently identified as Black, and then for political purposes. “Same old tired playbook,” Harris said. “Next question, please.”
Fox News predictably bashed Harris when it was over, but she sounded confident and insistent, measured and assured.
She defended President Joe Biden's administration and placed blame on Trump for dividing the nation and mismanaging the COVID-19 pandemic. Bash pressed Harris and Walz on some questions when they dodged (his depiction of his military service record, for example); some questions were less confrontational.
It wasn’t great TV so much as it was necessary TV. Mainstream media has complained for weeks about the lack of access to Harris, who has stuck to carefully controlled and scripted events, like the Democratic National Convention, to deliver her message to voters. And it’s working.
Harris sounded like a presidential candidate
Thus the biggest news from the interview is really that it happened at all.
Again, Harris had not given an interview to a mainstream media outlet since Biden announced that he would not seek reelection and endorsed her. Trump and his followers routinely make baseless, ugly personal attacks on Harris, including on her intelligence. To hear them tell it, Harris avoided interviews because she couldn’t make it through one without embarrassing herself.
Clearly that was not the case. She comported herself just fine, because of course she did. You may agree or disagree with what she said, but she said it like a presidential candidate in the middle of a bitter campaign. To suggest otherwise is to deny what we saw, though that has never been a deal-breaker in the MAGA world.
The standard for interviews, like so much else since 2016, has changed, and not for the better.
With Harris, the baseline for success was would she even do it in the first place. For Biden, in his post-debate interviews with ABC and NBC, it really was whether he could get through them without freezing up or losing his train of thought. With Trump, it’s simply a matter of how many lies will he tell, and how unhinged will the worst of them be? And will the interviewer call him out on them?
What a world.
Harris and Walz's dual interview isn't unusual; Trump and Vance did one
There was some outcry that the interview was taped, but this isn't unusual.
Biden's interviews were taped, and they didn't exactly instill confidence in his ability to campaign. Some also complained that Walz appeared with Harris, that she didn't do the interview solo; the Wall Street Journal called him a "crutch" in a bizarre editorial on Thursday.
Again, a dual interview with presidential and vice presidential candidates is not unusual. John McCain and Sarah Palin gave one. Trump and Mike Pence gave one to "60 Minutes"in 2016. Barack Obama and Biden gave one. So did Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine. In other words, it's practically standard; Trump and JD Vance were interviewed together on Fox News in July.
In fairness, Harris helped create a lot of the pressure associated with the interview simply by not doing one for so long. She's gotten this one out of the way. Maybe it will lead to a slew of interviews. Maybe not.
"I think she moved the ball forward a little bit," Ashley Allison said on CNN. "Maybe she didn't score a touchdown tonight, but she definitely moved down the field."
That's about right. But the game is far from over.
A trio of great speeches:Oprah, Kamala and Michelle showed the DNC 'a new way.' Thank god
Reach Goodykoontz atbill.goodykoontz@arizonarepublic.com. Facebook:facebook.com/GoodyOnFilm. X:@goodyk. Subscribe tothe weekly movies newsletter.
