
<p>Heading into the first sit-down interview in the campaign, the onus was on CNN’s host Dana Bash. ; Would she ask tough questions &#8230; or go soft? ; Would she be a journalist or a media flunky?</p>



<p>Those questions were fairly raised when she was selected to moderate the Biden/Trump debate for several reasons. ; To the surprise of many, Bash did not give favor to Biden in the Biden/Trump debate– and even Team Trump praised Bash for her fairness. ; She performed like a real journalist. ;</p>



<p>So, what about the Harris/Walz interview? ; Sad to say, Bash crashed.</p>



<p>Unlike her debate performance, Bash and CNN put on a show that could have been a Harris/Walz infomercial. Yes, she did ask Harris about a couple of her flip-flops – but mostly to allow Harris to provide the boilerplate response. ; There were no serious follow- up questions. ; No challenge when Harris said she is not going to ban fracking and has been consistent in that. ; ; No video of Harris when she said she would end all fracking &#8230; period. ; ; No challenge when she said proof of her position was the fact that “we (the Biden administration) did not ban fracking” Hmmmm. ; ; I seem to recall that Biden issued an Executive Order banning fracking on federal lands.</p>



<p>You could see the direction that this so-called interview was heading with the first question. ; What would Harris do on day one of her presidency? ; ; She said she would look after the middle class with jobs and business investment. ; Platitudes &#8230; no policies.</p>



<p>Most of the interview dealt with positive fuzzy stuff. ; Walz’ son expressing a loving and emotional reaction to his dad’s speech (which should never have been mocked). ; Very touching, but not policy.  ;Then there was the photo of Harris’ grandniece watching the Vice President giving her acceptance speech – a photo that is being hyped by the left as akin to the image of the raising of Old Glory at Iwo Jima in terms of symbolism.  ;Nice pic, but nothing to do with policy.</p>



<p>Harris was asked what she was doing when she got THE call from President Biden. Her initial response is that she should not give out too much information – TMI, if you will. ; Well, she was cooking pancakes and bacon for the family. ;  ;And that is Harris definition of TMI?</p>



<p>(If Harris was talking about “makin’ bacon” in the colloquial or slang sense, THAT would be TMI. ; But I digress.)</p>



<p>When Walz was asked if he misspoke when he said he carried a gun “in war,” the governor went on about gun violence in schools without answering the questions. ; Bash did not press the issue. We got the same deflection when asked about past lies dealing with his 1999 drunk and reckless driving charge. ; He deflected into “my students love me.” ; No direct answer. No policy.</p>



<p>When Harris bragged about bringing down inflation, Bash took a pass on the obvious &#8212; noting that inflation rose to record heights under the Biden/Harris watch. Harris was not asked about the excessive spending that fueled the inflation – and Harris’ role in casting the tie breaking vote on the massive spending bill.</p>



<p>As revealing and soft as the questions were, what was never asked was more shocking. ; Nothing about Ukraine &#8230; China &#8230; Iran &#8230; or Afghanistan. ; Nothing about tax policy. ; Just a lot off platitudes about cutting prices &#8230; lower medical costs &#8230; lowering housing costs. ; No question as to how Harris would do ; all that. ; Bash did not even pursue Harris on her proposed price and rent controls proposals.</p>



<p>Harris was not asked about crime – specifically her history of soft on crime polices. Decriminalizing illegal border crossing &#8230; ; ending cash bail &#8230; calling for a cut in the enforcement activities by ICE &#8230; and raising bail money for rioters in Minnesota.</p>



<p>As if the questioning was not bad enough, the CNN program was structured like a campaign ad. ; There was that warm fuzzy video opening. ; In conjunction with breaks, CNN showed videos of Harris and Walz in positive settings, including a restaurant. ; The pertinent question was &#8230; what did they order? ; She had a burger, and he had a brisket. ; (Is that another example of TMI – as in “too meaningless information”?)</p>



<p>When they did use Trump in the videos, they cherry picked his most unpopular statements – setting Harris up for her well established responses. ; The entire interview was never intended to elicit policy information from Harris as opposed to making her look as good as possible.</p>



<p>As the New York Times wrote:</p>



<p><em>“In a setting arranged by the Harris campaign to appear friendly — just three people sitting together at a neighborhood coffee shop in Savannah — it was going to be difficult for Ms. Bash to extract much news out of the vice president.”</em></p>



<p>And indeed, she did not. ; That is especially true when you consider that the questions were the result of groupthink at the station. ; The questions were no more impromptu than the carefully scripted answers.</p>



<p>Harris spent a lot of time peddling her alleged “values” over policies. ; Even where she did a 180-degree turnabout on fracking – and fibbing in the process (according to the CNN fact checker). ;  ;Harris illogically claimed that all her substantial flip flops reflected no change in values – Bash let her get away with it.</p>



<p>If not exactly fawning, Bash’s interview was too friendly to be viewed as a true interview conducted by a real journalist. ; The entire show was heavy on the puff and poop – virtually devoid &#8212; of issues. ; Viewers would not know much more about Harris after the interview than they did before. ; The Harris strategy is all about selling a marketing image while ignoring the tough questions.</p>



<p>Interestingly, at the start of the show – and following each commercial break – Bash would say “live from Savannah, Georgia.” ; Actually, the interview was taped and edited in advance. ; Only Bash’s introductions were live. ; That qualifies as disinformation and is not how a journalist or a news network conducts real interviews.</p>



<p>Despite the highly favorable treatment by CNN, I tend to agree with political strategist David Axelrod and many others. ; He gave Harris a good review but concluded his critique with “I don’t think she moved the needle.” ;</p>



<p>Others – from Fox to the New York Times – were not praising Harris performance. ; She was dull &#8230; boring &#8230; and again displayed her word salad approach to impromptu oratory.  ;The Times wrote, “She still struggles to be punchy off the cuff.”  ;</p>



<p>In consenting to an exclusive single interview, the Harris campaign is keeping with its strategy of limiting exposure to the press and the public to the bare minimum. ; Bringing along her affable teammate is further evidence of that. ; Walz was there to minimize the time Harris was exposed to direct questions. ; He was there to pick up the ball if she fumbled. As the <em>Wall Street Journal</em> noted, he was there as a crutch – as one observer called it, “her ESA (Emotional Support Animal).” ; For most of the interview, Walz just smiled and nodded.</p>



<p>Walz succeeded in his mission. ; He took airtime that could have been used for more important questions for Harris – and it is ; Harris who sets the policy. ; The fact that he is in lockstep to her very liberal agenda is at the same time notable and inconsequential.</p>



<p>Some have suggested that after the convention Harris would open up to a more traditional relationship with the press and the public – more interviews, press conferences and off-the-cuff responses. ; At the time of this writing, she has nothing on her schedule – and still no policy page on her website. ; It looks like Team Harris is going to run the Biden bunker campaign strategy on a single theme – “I am not Donald Trump.”</p>



<p>The interview made Harris’ cheerleaders cheer and her opponents pounce but did nothing to inform those voters who are seeking for more information on the issues before making a voting decision. ; Despite the pass from Bash and CNN, Harris’ performance was not informative and not reassuring to voters. ; She comes out of the inning with no hits, no runs and no (existential) errors.</p>



<p>So, there ‘tis.</p>

Harris/Walz interview … puff and platitudes trump policies
