CNN host Abby Phillip said Tuesday that Vice President Kamala Harris’ interview with Black journalists “lacked specifics” on Wednesday, and specifically called out the vice president for not having a quick and “understandable” answer to a question about the economy.
“Black journalists today at the NABJ [National Black Journalists Association] pressed vice president Kamala Harris on policies from guns to the war in Gaza, but many of her answers lacked specifics,” Phillip began.
The CNN panel discussed Harris’ interview with Black journalists, as well as Hillary Clinton’s assertion that it was a “double standard” to ask the vice president about policies.
Podcast host Kara Swisher said she didn’t necessarily agree with Clinton, and noted that polls show people want to “know more” about Harris.
59 DAYS: KAMALA HARRIS HAS YET TO DO A PRESS CONFERENCE SINCE EMERGING AS DEMOCRATIC NOMINEE
Phillip played a clip of Harris responding to a question about whether voters were better off than they were four years ago.
“We came in during the worst public health epidemic in centuries. We came in after the worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War and a lot of it due in large part to the mismanagement by the former president, as it relates to COVID and, obviously, January 6. And we had then a lot of work to do to clean up a mess. As of today, we have created over 16 million new jobs, over 800,000 new manufacturing jobs. We have the lowest Black unemployment rate in generations,” Harris said.
Phillip argued that Harris should have something “quick” and “understandable” ready in response to a question like that, adding, “and that wasn’t really it.”
CNN political commentator Ashley Allison said she wished Harris would have alluded to the next four years in her answer to the question about whether Americans were better off during Trump’s presidency.
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“Answer the question,” CNN political commentator Scott Jennings said. “She got the same question at the debate, and you know what else, why I went back and watched the debate again, every single policy question she got at the debate, she totally ignored and never answered. Why is it that she believes she does not have to answer to journalists who are asking pretty basic questions of a presidential candidate?”
Swisher said that Harris needed to be “specific while being vague.”
CNN political analyst Colman Hughes suggested Harris keeping her answers vague was working for her.
“What has worked for Kamala Harris is literally to not make headlines, to give vague but presidential sounding answers to questions, and allow voters to project the image of who they hope she is onto her,” Hughes said.
Hughes added that while he wanted to know more about her strategies on Russia and Ukraine, Harris “does tend to get into trouble when she answers off the cuff, she can be a gaffe machine when she‘s unprepared.”
Following the interview, Politico reported on Wednesday that Harris refused to “veer off script.” The report said Harris evaded questions about important issues, adding, “she did not break much ground or stray far from her talking points.”
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