Vice President Kamala Harris has done an impressive job lowering the bar on the question of how she will communicate her views to the American people. As you know, with the exception of a CNN interview last week, Harris has not done an interview since a group of backroom Democratic Party insiders muscled President Joe Biden out of the race on July 21, leading to Harris’ instant elevation to Democratic nominee the next day. Yes, she has taken a few softball questions from her traveling press corps, but nothing of any consequence. Needless to say, Harris has not done a news conference to take questions from reporters over an extended period of time.
There are two reasons behind Harris’ strategy. One, she’s not a good extemporaneous speaker. Why showcase her weakness? And two, staying away from the traditional venue for communication and scrutiny — that is, interactions with the press — has allowed Harris aides to float the idea that she has changed positions and moved to the center from her failed run for the Democratic nomination in 2019, when she was solidly in the progressive lane of the party. By using aides to float her new positions, she can put out word without putting her own face on it, leaving the impression that she has changed views without actually saying so.
On Aug. 8, Harris was asked when she would do an interview. “I want us to get an interview scheduled before the end of the month,” she answered. Her answer had an odd feeling to it, as if she had deigned to take a few questions, but not anytime soon. The campaign has not given any further information about the interview.
You would think the press would be up in arms about this. Instead, many journalists have accepted Harris’ gambit at face value. News programs are filled with speculation about The Interview — When will it be? Who will Harris choose to do it? What will she say? On some news outlets, the conversation is more about a single, unannounced interview than it is about news conferences, multiple interviews and daily access — what should be happening in a normal campaign.
On the other part of Harris’ strategy, the obfuscation of policy, Harris has succeeded spectacularly. There is now a media consensus that Harris has moderated some of her most left-leaning positions of the past, even though Harris herself has not announced any specific change. It has all been done by anonymous aides. Does that carry the weight of a statement from the candidate herself? Of course it doesn’t. If Harris has really changed her views, rather than send up a trial balloon via a campaign aide, she should tell the voters herself.
An example of how this works took place on ABC’s “This Week.” Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas told the moderator, ABC’s Jonathan Karl, that in the coming campaign, former President Donald Trump is “going to draw a sharp contrast with Kamala Harris, who has supported things like decriminalizing illegal immigration or giving taxpayer-funded health insurance to illegal aliens or taking away health insurance on the job for 170 million Americans, banning gas cars, confiscating firearms. These are all — “
Karl interrupted. “What do you mean taking away health insurance? What are you talking about?” Cotton responded that Harris “said when she ran for president that she wants to eliminate private health insurance on the job of 170 million Americans.” Karl said, “I mean, that is not her position now.”
“How do you know that’s not her position?” Cotton asked. “How do you know that’s not her position?” Karl answered that Harris has “said she no longer supports ‘Medicare for All.’”
“She has not said that,” Cotton responded. “She has not said that. She has not said that. Maybe anonymous aides on a Friday night have said that …” Indeed, an article from Politico recently noted: “Harris co-sponsored Sen. Bernie Sanders’ Medicare for All legislation when she was a California senator and offered a modified plan as the centerpiece of her short-lived 2020 presidential bid. But a campaign official told Politico it is no longer part of Harris’s agenda.”
That’s how it works. Harris purportedly backs down, by proxy, from her old position, and the press accepts it. When Cotton noted that Harris had not said herself that she no longer supports Medicare for All, Karl responded that Harris is “clearly making an effort to move to the middle.” Karl appeared to credit Harris with moving toward the middle when Harris herself had said nothing to indicate that she was, in fact, moving toward the middle.
Two weeks ago, in an appearance with Fox News’s Bret Baier, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley had some advice for Republicans. “Quit complaining that [Harris] is not giving an interview,” Haley said. “You don’t need an interview from Kamala Harris. I take her at her word.” Indeed, there is an extensive record, much of it on video, of Harris making her views clear on issues like taxes, health care, immigration, energy and others. Since she has never renounced or changed those statements, don’t they remain her views, at least until she says otherwise?
As far as many of the nation’s top journalists are concerned, though, there’s no need to hear it from the candidate herself. For Harris and her admirers in the media, saying nothing is enough.
Byron York is chief political correspondent for The Washington Examiner. This commentary is distributed by Andrews McNeel Syndication for Universal Features Syndicate. Send comments to [email protected].
