Why does Kamala Harris have to be this… WEIRD… about a single sit-down interview with a friendly media outlet?

After avoiding the press for as long as possible – and she probably could have kept going – the Harris campaign knew that she was going to have to give an interview. The DNC is over and guess what? No bounce in the polls, apparently. But this became a huge quandry for them, so naturally, they went to their constituents to ask who should get the gig. This had to become a crowdsourced decision.

Normal politician: Does interview

Kamala Harris: All hands on deck for Operation Enduring Joy pic.twitter.com/nVvoni1nWN

— Andrew Stiles (@AndrewStilesUSA) August 27, 2024

Yes, they went to the PRESS. And the press, who has not a shred of dignity left because they’re all in on “Operation Enduring Joy,” went right along with it. Also part of the problem – Tim Walz has not yet done an interview, either, and he has a LOT of open questions on his docket. But the campaign doesn’t want to send him out there, because what if he undercuts Kamala the same way that Joe Biden did on gay marriage to Barack Obama? What if Walz’s mouth writes a check that Kamala promptly bounces?

Democrats are stopping Walz from doing interviews because even he doesn't know where Kamala stands on issues.

Seriously. Literally.

The media has no follow-up questions. https://t.co/FyVA9Mc2Ba

— Sunny (@sunnyright) August 27, 2024

Problem solved, everyone! Dana Bash of CNN (who has already been a debate moderator, so won’t be involved in the next debate) will do the interview, but Kamala Harris will bring Tim Walz with her! She’s insisting on a plus-one to her own interview so she has someone to hang out with when the bride and groom Dana Bash is busy? Because… neither of them can be trusted to do an interview on their own? Kamala needs a babysitter? Or an emotional support human?

CNN revealed Tuesday Dana Bash would be taping a joint interview with Harris and Walz as they campaign in Georgia on Thursday to be broadcast that night.

It will mark the first time Harris has given a formal interview to the press since President Biden stepped out of the race and she became the nominee 38 days ago.

However, the news that Harris’ first interview would be alongside Walz, and with a sympathetic host and network, was seen as an admission that the vice president infamous for her word salads is “incapable” of doing an extended media appearance on her own.

Josh Hawley’s communications director Abigail Jackson wrote, “Kamala needs to do a live, unedited, solo press conference. She wants to be commander-in-chief and she’s too scared to do an interview without Tim Walz by her side? Girl power, amirite.”

“Joe Biden can’t get into a car or up a flight of stairs without a handler, and apparently Kamala Harris can’t even talk to a CNN reporter by herself. Embarrassing,” The Federalist co-founder Sean Davis commented.

Mediaite writer Caleb Howe joked that the ticket would be asked, “WHAT WOULD YOU SAY HAS MUTUALLY ENCHANTED YOU BOTH ABOUT BEING THE NOMINEES.”

“LOL, a joint interview. She simply cannot be left unattended,” National Review writer Jeff Behar wrote before adding, “To quote a colleague at NR: Tim Walz is apparently Kamala Harris’s ‘emotional support midwesterner.’”

Scott Jennings, who is currently CNN’s token Republican (and doing quite a good job of it right now), pointed out that this entire exercise makes Kamala Harris look weak.

“I think it’s incredibly weak, weak sauce, to show up with your running mate,” Scott Jennings, a former special assistant to President George W. Bush, told CNN late Tuesday, adding that the move showed a “troubling lack of confidence in her political ability.”

“It makes you wonder as a voter, ‘What kind of president would you be?’” he continued. “I think Republicans are going to think it’s pretty weak to show up effectively with someone who’ll take up half the time.”

Now, Dana Bash has interviewed Kamala Harris by herself before. Recently, footage of a previous 2021 interview has resurfaced, because Bash was asking Kamala about the withdrawl from Afghanistan, where Kamala said she was “the last person in the room.” Bash is capable of asking a probing question, or a leading one. She did shockingly well during the CNN debate as a moderator with Jake Tapper, in my opinion. But she, like the vast majority of the media class, is anti-Trump and will be voting for Kamala Harris. Will the stakes of this interview, and the fact that Tim Walz is going to be sitting there like a dad going to a job interview with his kid, change how she frames questions? Because the Harris campaign has invested so much emotional cash in this one interview, the pressure is now on Dana Bash to make the whole thing pay off for both candidate and audience. And, quite frankly, both cannot be satisfied at the same time. Team Harris-Walz wants to be humanized, given softball “JOY!” based questions, and not grilled on policy that they haven’t written up yet. The audience, much like New York Times deputy opinion editor Patrick Healy, is realizing that “JOY!” is not a tangible government policy, and “vibes” will not help a president deal with Vladimir Putin or Hamas or Xi Jinping.

Dana Bash is now tasked with making Kamala Harris look like a serious, capable candidate, because being “brat” is not going to get the Middle East to come to the negotiating table. The problem is, Kamala is neither serious or capable, except in one topic (abortion, where she merely repeats all the correct slogans and visits abortion clinics), and Walz has an entire graveyard of skeletons from the lies he has told that the campaign is trying to keep buried. Their goal for this interview? Distract and deflect.

A joint interview is a great idea because when Kamala stutters into some sort of circular nonsense answer, Tim Walz can do a silly little dance to distract everyone.

— Frank J. Fleming (@IMAO_) August 27, 2024

Which frankly, is hilarious, because the interview is going to be TAPED, not live. The campaign must be REALLY freaked out if they don’t think some simple editing cuts will make Kamala Harris sound smarter and less like a vapid predictive text generator. Jonathan Chait, who absolutely wants Kamala Harris to win, is correct when he says the safer route would be to give MORE interviews, in order to blunt the impact of one potential bad one. (You know, the way one debate wrecked Joe Biden.) The Harris-Walz campaign isn’t listening to this practical advice. They must really be scared of what Kamala could do without her emotional support human present, or if given multiple opportunities to serve up word salad.

Featured image: original Victory Girls art by Darleen Click