Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday gave the first solo cable news interview as a Democratic presidential candidate, but she also didn't answer any questions in a friendly interview with MSNBC's Stephanie Ruhle.
Mr. Ruhle, who faced criticism Friday for comments defending Ms. Ruhle from facing questions on policy, posed pointed questions to Ms. Harris and even fact-checked some of her repeated talking points.
When Harris tried to falsely claim, as she has done in the past, that “Donald Trump left us with the worst economy since the Great Depression” (when in fact the economy was growing when he left office), Ruhle pointed out that “that was during COVID, and the reason employment was so high is because he shut down the government and shut down the country.” Harris then said that Trump had lost 200,000 manufacturing jobs before the pandemic, which is also false. Manufacturing Jobs rose 450,000 people.
Ruhle also fact-checked Harris' claim — a staple of Joe Biden's economic speeches — that President Trump's 2017 tax cuts only benefited the wealthy and corporations. “He cut not only corporate taxes, he cut personal taxes,” Ruhle noted.
The MSNBC interviewer also pointed out that Harris' plans to expand the child tax credit and help with mortgage down payments could not be implemented without congressional approval and Republican support: “If you can't raise corporate taxes, or if the Republicans control the Senate, where are you going to get the money to do that? Are you still going to go ahead with these plans and borrow money?” As Ruhle later pointed out, Harris never bothered to answer.
Harris seemed taken aback by Luhle's often gentle questioning. When Luhle asked Harris, “How do you go after price gouging without implementing price controls?” the vice president was completely stumped and simply dodged the question. “Yes, we will go after them,” she repeated, targeting companies that exploit consumers and not answering the question.
At one point, Harris made a bizarre comment about the rising cost of living: “Gone are the days when everyone thought they could live the American dream,” a near-indictment of her four years as governor. When Luhle pointed out that local regulations and restrictions contributed to the housing shortage, Harris quickly agreed, but failed to mention that her home state was one of the worst offenders and that she had done nothing about it.
Ruhle did his best to convince Harris that he was, in fact, on her side.
When Ruhle asked Harris if she had in fact worked at a McDonald's, Harris laughed and said yes, but Ruhle didn't follow up with the obvious question skeptical conservatives have been asking: “Which one?”
But she still stuck to other substantive questions. On tariffs, for example, she challenged Harris' opposition to President Trump's tariff policies. “But tariffs aren't just about President Trump,” the MSNBC anchor said. “President Biden is imposing tariffs. He's actually considering imposing more tariffs. Do you think there are good tariffs and bad tariffs?” Harris stalled again, attacking President Trump's tariff proposal as “all-out.”
Harris ended her response with some ridicule for Trump.
He hasn't really thought through some of these issues. He needs to get serious and come up with a plan. A real plan, not just something to be talked about at political rallies, but actually thinking about what the return on investment is, what the economic impact is for ordinary people.
Many viewers, even staunch MSNBC Democrats, might find that description to apply to Ms. Harris, who struggled to explain her economic plans to sympathetic interviewers, often evading arguments or simply dodging them.
Joel B. Pollack is executive editor of Breitbart News. Breitbart News Sunday It airs Sundays from 7:00pm-10:00pm ET (4:00pm-7:00pm PT) on SiriusXM Patriot. He is the author of the following books: Agenda: What President Trump Should Do in His First 100 Daysavailable for pre-order on Amazon. He also The Trump Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump's Presidencyavailable now on Audible. He is the recipient of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter. Joel Pollack.
