Last night, the most engaged voters got what they’ve been waiting for since Vice President Kamala Harris announced she was running to replace President Joe Biden 39 days ago. By dancing around calls to offer firm policy positions and hemming and hawing about when she would sit down for a hard-hitting interview, the Harris campaign raised the stakes for the back-and-forth with CNN’s Dana Bash.
A teaser trailer early on Thursday evening hinted at a rocky performance. Harris has been criticized for rambling sentences that include buzzwords and hints at positions while rolling past the answers to questions.
“You mentioned the Green New Deal,” Harris said. “I have always believed, and I have worked on it, that the climate crisis is real, that it is an urgent matter to which we should apply metrics that include holding ourselves to deadlines around time.”
That clip hinted at the adversarial nature of some of Bash’s questions as the vice president has skirted releasing hard policy proposals and instead focused on running a “vibes” campaign. Harris has emphasized “joy” about the future and a promise to deliver on Biden’s promises of growing the middle class.
When asked about her plans for her first day in office, Harris continued to nod at middle-class voters and talked about her policy goals, if not their means.
“First and foremost, one of my highest priorities is to do what we can to support and strengthen the middle class,” Harris said. “Day one, it’s going to be about implementing my plan for what I call an opportunity economy. I’ve already laid out a number of proposals in that regard, which include what we’re going to do to bring down the cost of everyday goods, what we’re going to do to invest in America’s small businesses.”
Two items Harris has been concrete on have been echoing Sen. J.D. Vance’s (R-OH) call to increase the child tax credit, though her demand has been for $6,000, and adding a tax credit of $25,000 for first-time homebuyers.
The interview wasn’t a complete walk in the park. Bash held Gov. Tim Walz’s (D-MN) feet to the fire about his repeated misstatements, if not outright lies, about his military record, his family’s experience with fertility treatments, and campaigns misleading voters about a DUI in 1995.
Walz dodged taking Bash’s question head-on.
“I certainly own my mistakes when I make them,” he said. “I think people know who I am. They know that record. … I’ve been out there, and I won’t apologize for speaking passionately, whether it’s guns in schools or protecting reproductive rights. The contrast could not be more clear between what we’re running against, the vice president and I.”
Considering the pressure Harris had built up for herself with the long delay before taking questions on the record and in front of a camera, Thursday night’s performance likely assured voters who plan to support her and did little to silence her critics.
Former President Donald Trump’s team has one fewer arrow in its quiver to use against the nominee, but an uneven performance might have offered an opening to try to expose during their debate on Sept. 10.
Click here to read more about what we learned from Harris’s first interview.
Don’t forget about ISIS
Three years ago today, the United States under Biden pulled troops out of Afghanistan — with disastrous results. While the chaos that ensued following the mad scramble to leave primarily benefited the Taliban, they weren’t the only terrorist organization pleased to see U.S. troops forced well over the horizon from their outposts.
In the third part of our Lost Authority series, Defense Reporter Mike Brest took a long look at the resurgence of the Islamic State and its affiliates.
“While the Islamic State holds a fraction of the territory in Iraq and Syria that it controlled at its peak 10 years ago, its network of affiliates in other places, such as Afghanistan, Pakistan, and various parts of Africa, has been able to increase its capabilities, carry out external attacks, and encourage lone actors across the Western world to do the same in their own communities,” Mike wrote.
“The U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, mired by the Abbey Gate bombing on Aug. 26, 2021, left the Taliban in charge, and while they aren’t aligned with ISIS-K, the Taliban have not consistently gone after ISIS-K, thereby allowing it to flourish,” he wrote.
A constant peacekeeping presence in Afghanistan had once pushed ISIS and its outgrowths, such as ISIS-K, deep into the desert and away from key locations for it to continue its quest for domination. But that pressure is gone, and despite America’s superior technology and firepower, it failed to smash ISIS with a full-time force in the region.
Now, relying on “over-the-horizon” methods of monitoring and responding to threats has slowed reaction times and given the Taliban rivals an opportunity to claw their way back to significance.
Click here to read more about the looming return of ISIS’s black flags.
When Democrats go low
Harris is trying as hard as she can to make the 2024 contest into a contrast in character. A central component of her stump speech is playing up her former roles as a district attorney and attorney general to paint a picture of an election that pits a prosecutor versus a felon.
Getting into a battle of personal attacks with Trump, who has consistently shown his ability to twist the knife and a complete lack of fear to turn on even his closest allies when it suits him, doesn’t appear advisable. But while Republicans are begging Trump to lay off the petty insults he’s hurling at Harris and instead focus on her policy proposals, or lack thereof, Democrats are reportedly leaning into the vice president’s own knife-fighting skills.
White House Reporter Haisten Willis covered this pseudo-role-reversal for us this morning, looking at reports that Democrats think acting a little more like Trump could be a recipe for success.
“According to CNN, Democrats are not only urging Harris to downplay policy on the campaign trail but to avoid getting into the ‘nitty gritty’ about what she would do if elected,” Haisten wrote. “One anonymous Democratic aide told the outlet that ‘this election will clearly be won or lost on vibes.’”
It’s possible letting Harris lean into personal attacks could detract from her own lack of fleshed-out policy positions. If she isn’t prepared to present a white paper describing why her tax and spending plan is superior to Trump’s — and there has been a surprising amount of overlap between the two candidates on a handful of issues — then freeing her up to “go low” might also separate her from a policy minefield.
And Harris isn’t at risk of looking like she’s the first candidate to “go negative.” Critical messages have a time and a place in campaigns, and the timing of unleashing them is crucial. But with Trump, Harris can’t be accused of firing the first salvo in a cold war.
Trump has brushed off his advisers’ directions to stick to attacks on Harris’s policies, pointing to Democrats’ own constant stream of criticism of him.
“You know they always say, ‘Sir, please stick to policy. Don’t get personal,’” Trump said during a rally in North Carolina earlier this month. “And yet they’re getting personal all night long.”
Click here to read more about who is going high and who is going low in 2024.
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For your radar
Biden has nothing on his public schedule.
Harris has nothing on her public schedule.
Trump will hold a rally in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, at 4:30 p.m. The former president will also speak at the Moms for Liberty Joyful Warriors summit at 8 p.m.