Kamala Harris has to do more interviews. Her campaign staff knows it. The problem is, she’s just not GOOD in interviews.

Her biggest boo-boos have all come during interviews, because she can give a speech off the teleprompter without losing her place on the screen (unlike Joe Biden). The only solution for the campaign is to hand her off to the most softball interviews possible. On Friday, MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle made the biggest ass-kissing defense of Kamala Harris on Bill Maher’s show, claiming that it was TOTALLY FINE for Kamala to not give specific answers for anything because ORANGE MAN BAD. No, really.

Bret Stephens asks Stephanie Ruhle why Kamala Harris has not done interviews and stated clearly what her policy positions are. Ruhle responds that 'We don't live in Nirvana':
Bret Stephens: "I'm an undecided voter. I'm not sure I want to vote for Kamala. My fear is that she… pic.twitter.com/y80j8kDIWh

— Eric Abbenante (@EricAbbenante) September 21, 2024

Clearly, the Harris campaign took that to be an audition tape, because Stephanie Ruhle got the invitation to interview Kamala.

Ruhle: Kamala doesn't need to answer tough questions.

Kamala: Hey, would you like to interview me? https://t.co/RxA1QwJsMa

— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) September 25, 2024

It’s just so patently transparent, and they don’t care. They know the mainstream media, with rare exceptions, are all in the tank for her. There’s no pretending, no pretense of objectivity. So Kamala goes to a “safe” journalist on a “safe” network to be gently tossed a bunch of Squishmallows and be told that she’s such a JOY. Which was probably a nice break for her after giving a much-anticipated speech on her economic policies which, as we assumed, would be light on the details. And there was absolutely nothing new in her speech – it ended up being a recap of everything she has previously said that she would do, with a dash of word salad mixed in.

So lucky Stephanie Ruhle got to sit down and interview Kamala Harris. The final cut of said interview clocks in at just under 24 minutes.

MSNBC also put out a transcript of the interview. It always helps to actually SEE the words that came out of Kamala’s mouth, because her delivery at least is designed to make her sound relatively competent. You have to strip away the tone, the hand gestures, and the distracting lack of eye contact, and actually read the words independently. Once you do, you realize just how vapid this woman really is. Just read this first question from Ruhle, which is a total softball. And look how Kamala just cannot answer this question without retreating to all her stock phrases and memorized lines!

RUHLE: But, still, there are lots of Americans who don’t see themselves in your plans. For those who say, these policies aren’t for me, what do you say to them?

HARRIS: Well, if you are hardworking, if you have the dreams and the ambitions and the aspirations of what I believe you do, you’re in my plan.

I have to tell you, I really love and am so energized by what I know to be the spirit and character of the American people. We have ambition. We have aspirations. We have dreams. We can see what’s possible. We have an incredible work ethic.

But not everyone has the access to the opportunities that allow them to achieve those things. But we don’t lack for those things. But not everyone gets handed stuff on a silver platter. And so my vision for the economy — I call it an opportunity economy — is about making sure that all Americans, wherever they start, wherever they are, have the ability to actually achieve those dreams and those ambitions, which include, for middle-class families, just being able to know that their hard work allows them to get ahead, right?

I think we can’t and we shouldn’t aspire to have an economy that just allows people to get by. People want to do more than just get by. They want to get ahead. And I come from the middle class.

Look, my mother raised my sister and me. She worked hard. She saved up. By the time I was a teenager, she was able to buy our first home. And homeownership for too many people in our country now is elusive. You know, gone is the day of everyone thinking they could actually live the American dream.

So part of my vision for the economy is, let’s deal with some of the everyday challenges that people face and address them with commonsense solutions, such as affordable housing.

Did she say ANYTHING about how her policies would help people? Did she address anyone who disagrees with her? Nope, not a word. We just got the same things that we’ve heard her say before. But then we got a real treat. You see, Kamala Harris has learned a new word. Maybe she has an app that gives her a new word a day, or maybe she played a game of Scrabble with someone, or maybe her campaign is trying to give her new words to try out. The word of the day, for Kamala, was “holistic.”

She definitely answered that question holistically https://t.co/ilmR6Hu27b

— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) September 26, 2024

The question from Ruhle was a rather specific one: how would Harris cut the “red tape” at the local level to get more affordable housing built? Here is what she said, per the transcript.

So, across our country, people rightly are concerned about the cost of housing. So it’s homeownership, to your point. We need more supply. That is, without any question, part of the solution.

Creating more supply under my plan includes creating tax incentives to work with the private sector and homebuilders. Part of my goal and the plan would be to create three million new housing units for rent and for ownership by the end of my first term. It includes also what we must do to cut red tape. You’re absolutely right.

It takes far too long and there’s too much bureaucracy associated with homebuilding. And I say that as a devout public servant. I know that we have to reduce the red tape and speed up what we need to do around building. And that is going to require working from the federal level with state and local governments.

And it’s going to be different in different places, depending on the needs of that community, the needs of that local government, that municipality, but working in consultation and coordination and also around incentives that we can create.

For example, some of the work is going to be through what we do in terms of giving benefits and assistance to state and local governments around transit dollars, and looking holistically at the connection between that and housing, and looking holistically at the incentives we in the federal government can create for local and state governments to actually engage in planning in a holistic manner that includes prioritizing affordable housing for working people.

Next, Kamala Harris will suggest essential oils in order to engage in some “holistic” lifestyle changes in order to get affordable housing.

But her real economic goal is to tax and spend. While she is directly copying Joe Biden by vowing that “no one making less than $400,000 a year” will not pay more in taxes, she has also promised that she would let the Trump tax cuts expire – which DID help the middle class. But Kamala here is simply parroting Joe Biden, who often demanded that the rich “pay their fair share.” When Ruhle points out that all of her big social plans will come to nothing if she doesn’t have Congress backing her on tax raises, she seems dumbfounded.

Asked what she’ll do if Republicans don’t agree w/ her plan to raise taxes on American consumers, Harris appears confused & repeatedly says they “have to pay their fair share.” pic.twitter.com/MUstGTUPTJ

— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) September 25, 2024

RUHLE: And expanding that child tax credit, or you mentioned housing before, giving that extra money for a first home, if you can’t raise corporate taxes, or if GOP takes control of the Senate, where do you get the money to do that?

Do you still go forward with those plans and borrow?

HARRIS: Well, but we’re going to have to raise corporate taxes. And we’re going to have to raise — we’re going to have to make sure that the biggest corporations and billionaires pay their fair share.

That’s just it. It’s about paying their fair share. I am not mad at anyone for achieving success, but everyone should pay their fair share. And it is not right that the teachers and the firefighters that I meet every day across our country are paying a higher tax than the richest people in our country.

Those lines are straight from the Joe Biden playbook and are now in Kamala Harris’s mouth. “New way forward,” indeed.

So the Ruhle interview didn’t really produce anything new from Kamala Harris, and showed yet again what a lightweight she is when it comes to concrete policy. Even Stephanie Ruhle had to admit that Kamala Harris wasn’t answering her question regarding borrowing money if she can’t raise taxes.

YIKES.

Stephanie Ruhle on her softball interview with Kamala: "she doesn't answer the question." pic.twitter.com/aPPkPGh4IV

— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) September 25, 2024

Ruhle must have realized how that sounded, because she then began to make excuses for Harris, using the same rationale that she used when defending her on Bill Maher’s show.

Stephanie Ruhle reacts to her interview with Kamala:

"One could watch and say she didn't give a clear and direct answer. And that's okay, because we're not talking about clear and direct issues."pic.twitter.com/4tGef67xGJ

— Greg Price (@greg_price11) September 25, 2024

No, it’s really NOT “okay” that Kamala Harris can’t give “clear and direct answers” when asked these questions. It’s a rather BIG problem, actually. When you look at Kamala the candidate HOLISTICALLY, shall we say – looking at her as a complete candidate on the whole, not just picking apart her economic policy or social policy or word salads or personality or history, but taking it all as a lump sum – is this the person who the American people want standing up to Iran for the next four years? If Kamala Harris has to go on MSNBC for this kind of softball interview, and STILL fumbles badly enough that the interviewer has to make excuses for her, how on earth is she going to be able to stand up for America’s interests in the face of international bad actors and actual terrorists?

Featured image: original Victory Girls art by Darleen Click