During Tuesday's “CNN Newsnight” broadcast, host Abby Phillips said that many of the answers given by 2024 Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris in an interview with the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) on the same day “lacked specificity,” with CNN contributor Kara Swisher saying that Harris “has to be vague but specific” during the campaign.
“Today, NABJ's Black journalists asked Vice President Kamala Harris questions on policies from guns to the Gaza war, and many of her answers lacked specifics,” Phillips began the show.
Philip then responded to an audio clip of former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton saying that Harris had published her policies on her website and didn't need to publish any more by saying that Clinton had many policies but didn't get any credit for them. Swisher responded that Clinton had many policies, but “I don't know if I agreed with her when she said that. It was interesting that she said that, because she was saying that strategically, politically, she didn't need to say too much. I think most people would probably agree that she should say more. Because, as Audie Cornish of this network said, a lot of people are interested in Kamala Harris. And if you look at the statistics, people want to know more about Kamala Harris… They know Donald Trump.”
Philip added: “It's worth mentioning if she has to explain what kind of change she's going to see from a Joe Biden presidency, because voters are going to be trying to gauge which candidate is going to be the candidate of change.”
Swisher then said, “She has to be vague but specific,” to which Phillippe agreed, adding, “That's a really hard thing to do.”
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