It was, Dana Bash said on CNN at 9 p.m. Thursday, "a watershed moment." Not just a watershed—"a defining moment." Why the fuss? Kamala Harris was giving an interview.
Think about that. Somehow, in the whirlwind of campaign 2024, we have reached the point where it's news that the Democratic nominee for president of the United States of America will answer questions from the press. Until now, if you've been interested in Harris's views, you've had to rely, with one or two exceptions, on the Harris whisperers—the unnamed aides quoted in mainstream media disavowing the vice president's previous positions on health care, energy, the environment, immigration, and crime. The interview mattered because it was the first time we heard the nominee unfiltered, without her teleprompter, no notes.
Harris is elusive. It's been over a month since she locked up the Democratic nomination, and we barely know anything about what she wants to do as president, or where she'd like to lead the country. One virtue of the long campaign is that, over two years, you get a feeling for candidates. You learn a lot—sometimes too much—about them. Democratic strategist David Axelrod once said that presidential campaigns "are like an MRI for the soul." Harris missed her doctor's appointment. She's the first nominee in the modern era not to have won a primary. She's delivered one major policy speech, on price controls, to mixed reviews. Then a Harris whisperer told the New York Times not to worry, the plan won't become law anyway.
"I think she's someone who doesn't like feeling known, doesn't like you assuming to have figured her out, and I think that's true politically and personally," Astead Herndon of the New York Times told a colleague this week. Harris's suspicion of reporters was apparent in the conversation with Bash. She seemed to be spending more time trying not to mispronounce Bash's first name than delivering a message directly and pithily. Forty days of preparation weren't enough.
When Bash asked Harris if she would invite a Republican to join her cabinet, Harris reacted as though she hadn't contemplated such a move. She looked downward for much of her answer, thinking through the question aloud before settling on sure, why not, as her response. The last Republican to serve in a Democrat's cabinet was former defense secretary Bob Gates under Barack Obama. It did not end well.
Harris's values may not have changed, but what were her values in the first place? She told Bash that the same values informed her support for the Green New Deal in 2019 and the (so-called) Inflation Reduction Act in 2022. But the two pieces of legislation are different in scope and method. The Green New Deal was a child of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.) and her socialist "Squad." It aims to transform the U.S. economy. The Inflation Reduction Act was a massive spending bill, a grab bag of energy and health care subsidies and an expansion of the IRS. Harris didn't explain the through line that connects reducing the number of "farting cows" and shoving money into EV charging stations. Or perhaps she didn't want to.
Bash asked some good questions, but rarely followed up. She mentioned Harris's calls to ban fracking. When Harris said, "As president I will not ban fracking," Bash moved on. The next subject was immigration. What about the time when Harris wanted to decriminalize border crossings? "I would enforce our laws as president going forward," Harris said. What a relief.
In the end, Harris remained somewhat aloof, hesitant, withdrawn. She stuck close to her talking points. The interview was cut into segments, and the final piece was all soft—how Harris felt about the photo of her grandniece watching her accept the Democratic nomination, how vice presidential nominee Tim Walz, the governor of Minnesota, responded to his son's joy at seeing his dad named as Harris's running mate.
About Walz. Bash asked him to explain his misrepresentation of his National Guard service, his family's fertility treatments, his DUI. He, too, stuck to the playbook. He emoted. He harrumphed. He avoided a direct answer. Bash could've pressed him further. It was a missed opportunity. One among many.
A watershed? A defining moment? If so, the water's under the bridge. And I wouldn't say the moment defined Kamala Harris well.