CNN host Abby Phillips said Tuesday that Vice President Kamala Harris' interview with a Black journalist on Wednesday “lacked substance,” specifically criticizing the vice president for not giving quick, “easy-to-understand” answers to questions about the economy.
“Black journalists gathered at NABJ today [National Black Journalists Association] “I asked Vice President Kamala Harris questions about policies from guns to the Gaza war, and many of her answers lacked specifics,” Phillips began.
The CNN panel discussed Harris' interviews with black journalists and Hillary Clinton's claim that questioning the vice president about policy is a “double standard.”
Podcast host Kara Swisher said she wasn't necessarily in favor of Clinton, noting that polls show people want to “know more” about Harris.
CNN's Abby Phillips said Tuesday that Vice President Kamala Harris' interview with a Black journalist was “lacking in detail.” (Screenshot/CNN)
59th: Kamala Harris has yet to hold a press conference since emerging as the Democratic candidate.
Phillips played a clip of Ms Harris responding to a question about whether her constituents were better off than they were four years ago.
“We came to office in the midst of the worst public health pandemic in centuries. We came to office after the worst assault on our democracy since the Civil War, much of which was due to the failures of the previous president, and of course to the COVID pandemic and of course to January 6th. And we have a lot of work to do to clean up the mess. To date, we have created more than 16 million new jobs, more than 800,000 new manufacturing jobs, and Black unemployment is the lowest it has been in generations,” Harris said.
Phillips argued that Harris should have “quick” and “easy to understand” answers prepared for such questions, adding, “But that wasn't the case.”
CNN political commentator Ashley Allison said she wished Ms Harris had focused on the next four years in her response to a question about whether Americans have become better off under Trump's presidency.
For more articles on Media and Culture click here
“Please answer the question,” CNN political commentator Scott Jennings said. “She got the same question in the debate. And the reason I rewatched the debate is because she completely ignored and didn't answer every policy question she got in the debate. Why does she think she doesn't have to answer reporters who ask very basic questions of a presidential candidate?”
Swisher said Harris needs to be “vague but specific.”
CNN political analyst Colman Hughes suggested that Ms Harris' vagueness in her answers had worked to her advantage.
Click here to get the FOX News app
“What worked for Kamala Harris was that she literally didn't make headlines, she gave vague but presidential answers to questions and allowed voters to project the image they wanted of her,” Hughes said.
Hughes said he would like to know more about Harris' strategy on Russia and Ukraine, but added that “she has a tendency to get into trouble when she improvises answers and can make gaffes when she's unprepared.”
After the interview, Politico reported On Wednesday, it was reported that Ms Harris had refused to “go off script.” The report said she avoided questions on key issues, adding that “she did not make any major advances or stray significantly from her talking points.”
