Vice President Kamala Harris' refusal to give a single solo interview since the inauguration has reached the level of farce in Washington. But outside of Washington, D.C., she is playing a game with increasingly serious consequences.
But first, the show in town. Will she or won't she? And if she does, who will she bring along? Tuesday morning's Playbook newsletter was titled “Behind Harris' Big Interview Decision,” and Over 1,000 words In response to the question, he literally didn't say a single sentence about how odd it was to accept the Democratic nomination without even contesting a primary election and then refuse to answer any questions.
The longer the silence continues, the greater the impact of the mask coming off.
So what else could The Playbook have spent 1,009 words on if not about this obvious aspect of the 2024 campaign? The answer is, which of your friends is going to be interviewed, who's going to call who and talk about it, and what Harris wants to get out of all of this. No kidding.
If this reminds you of high school girls giggling about who the quarterback will take to the dance, that's because that's a lot of Washington journalism these days, and how the media approaches Democratic candidates.
The Harris campaign even thought that Ms. Harris might buck the pressure and offer one of her allies a “dual interview,” in which she would sit alongside Gov. Tim Walz (D-Minn.). Late Tuesday, the campaign did just that, and on Thursday with CNN's Dana Bash. The campaign wrote that dual interviews “tend to be softer and more focused on the relationship between the two candidates.” They're right. It's important to hold them to it.
Outside Washington The tee-hee whispers have diminished. The vice president's refusal to take questions has become an all-too-public joke for California Governor Gavin Newsom, the top Democrat. I can't keep a straight face She has never spoken publicly about the issue, but it is very serious and with each passing day more attention is being paid to her disorder.
When she finally relents, the outcome will be a highly publicized, heavily media-covered event. If she performs poorly, the country will be watching. If she performs well, her campaign will say she has proven herself worthy of the job and will characterize any further scrutiny as racist or conspiratorial. The danger for Harris is that even voters who are leading normal, happy lives will start paying attention to the election after the long Labor Day weekend, which, if they missed it, is this weekend. So the stakes are high for this campaign.
We've already seen what happened when Democrats hid President Joe Biden from scrutiny for too long. His terrible debate performances sucked the air out of the room, dominated the news longer than the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, and led to Biden's painful abdication. The longer we wait, the higher the chances of failure seem to be. Of course, if Biden had performed better, he would still be in the race. That's the gamble.
Well, maybe she can get across the finish line. Early voting in Pennsylvania begins less than three weeks away, on Sept. 16. Virginians can start voting four days later.
Her big obstacle is the Sept. 10 debate, which both sides have been arguing over until Tuesday. Democrats have been working aggressively to shore up her many weaknesses in the run-up to the debate, most recently her support for a border wall. But with just days to go, we can only guess where she stands and on what. The concerns are so great in her campaign that staff haven't even sent Walz out, fearful that he'll try to explain “policies” she doesn't understand.
America may be heading toward electing a president we don't know. The Harris campaign would prefer that. But the longer the silence continues, the greater the impact of the unmasking. It's a bold strategy. If it works, it will be celebrated. If it doesn't, we'll wonder why anyone would even attempt such an arrogant thing.
Blaze News: Trump says he and Harris have reached an agreement on rules for upcoming debates
Blaze News: Zuckerberg 'comes clean' about election interference and pandemic censorship in accusatory letter
Blaze News:Kamala Harris has long opposed the border wall but has since said she wants it built.
Blaze News:Special Counsel Jack Smith filed an amended indictment against Donald Trump to satisfy the Supreme Court's ruling on immunity.
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In other news
Mitch McConnell won't fight Democrats over illegal conduct Foreign Voters
The Republican Senate Minority Leader is furious. While some of his colleagues in the House and Senate are willing to fight over citizens-only voting, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is not keen. A McConnell aide told Axios this week that it's too risky. And with the election so close?
Of course, that's absurd, given that this is a fight over the integrity of an election that the American people support and that Republican candidates are fighting for. And yet McConnell thinks he has a plan to contain the resistance.
Republican Leaders I generally dislike shutdowns. They quickly note that the dominance of the corporate media and a Machiavellian level of willingness to inflict pain means that the modern Democratic Party is generally the winner. And they have a point.
But the predictions of doom are a bit much. They blame the election loss in Virginia on a fight over a previous government shutdown, but Virginia was already leaning Democratic for a long time. One blogger I used to work with even went so far as to blame a Republican shutdown for a mentally ill man driving his car into the White House barrier. Sober analysis is not for everyone.
But analysis aside, victory or defeat often comes down to message. The message “we just want people to vote” is why Republicans won. It's not like Obamacare or budget caps. Americans understand it and support it.
What McConnell really wants It's a big omnibus budget that will fund the Ukraine hobby after he's gone, but the first proposal to stave off conservative opposition to repealing the SAVE Act is a “clean CR,” which would provide funding to states without expanding Democrats' powers or tying them to Trump Administration policy next year.
It's a kind offer. But if Republicans are serious about election integrity (as they should be), they will take Democratic opposition to the SAVE Act at face value and consider the elections to be in jeopardy if the bill doesn't pass. In that light, it's hard to believe Republican leaders are saying the stakes are high in November's elections.
Axios: McConnell has major concerns in next budget fight
Tonight's Blades news: Mike Lee details how the SAVE Act passed
Blaze News: Texas removes 1 million ineligible voters from voter rolls — 30% of foreigners found to have previously voted
Blaze News: Democrats tried unsuccessfully to remove Cornell West from the ballot in Michigan and Jill Stein from Wisconsin.
Fires Rise: UnHerd: How capitalism took over London's skyline
Poor London. Stricken by both the human import mania of the left and the money mania of the right. Between the bankers, globalists and lifestyle liberals, there is hardly anyone defending British values. The working and middle classes suffer greatly from this reality. So does the skyline. Jonathan Glancey reports:
Before his coronation silence, Prince Charles launched some memorable attacks on modern architects and town planners. At the annual dinner of the City of London Planning and Communications Committee at the Mansion House in December 1987, he said: “Ladies and gentlemen, let me say this to the Luftwaffe: when the Luftwaffe destroyed our buildings, they did not build anything more than rubble in their place. We did that… Your predecessors as town planners, “City architects and developers have ruined London's skyline and desecrated the dome of St Paul's Cathedral.”As indigestion gurgled around the room, the Prince raised his gun again. “Not only did they destroy the entire London skyline, they also tried their best to make the giant dome disappear into a jumble of office buildings. It's so mundane that the only way you'll remember it is for the frustration they cause. It's like having a basketball team standing shoulder to shoulder between you and the Mona Lisa.” The French and Italians have never Can you imagine an office building encasing Paris' cherished Notre Dame Cathedral or Venice's sparkling St. Mark's Basilica?
