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It has been 39 days since President Joe Biden stepped down and Vice President Kamala Harris became the Democratic presidential candidate. From that day until Thursday, Harris refused to give interviews and was under a complete media blackout for 39 days, but on Thursday, she chose CNN's Dana Bash as her interlocutor, and will be interviewed by someone for the first time. Harris will be accompanied by Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.
Waltz will no doubt be a kind of calming blanket for the VP, who can get nervous in front of the cameras and is a lisp that could do great damage to the campaign if he were to utter it. So it will be important for Bash to make it clear early on that he has questions prepared for Harris, Waltz and both Harris and that he will respect the audience's right to hear the answers from the person he is asking the questions to.
Harris has every right to be nervous. Bash is a professional and won't ask her questions about the importance of abortion rights or banning assault weapons, because he knows where Harris stands on those issues. Voters need to know what we don't currently know about Harris.
Harris is not seen by many as a suitable candidate for the office of vice president, let alone president. As former President Trump often reminds people, she was a laughing stock until the day before Biden's incompetence was revealed in a debate with former President Biden, and her subsequent plummeting poll numbers forced her to withdraw from the race. Since then, the Democratic Party and its traditional media colleagues have been working 24/7 to turn Harris from an object of ridicule into a brand new, sophisticated candidate who has nothing to do with Biden or the past three and a half years.
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“Bash's job will be to provide an impartial investigation into Harris' readiness to be president. Bash is an accomplished broadcast journalist, on par with any I've ever worked with. I've worked with most of the major networks' key players. Bash and I moderated four Republican presidential primary debates in 2015-2016, and this spring I endorsed her to the Republican National Committee as a trusted expert for the debates it hosted at the time.
But CNN as a whole is very left-leaning and is a big part of the legacy media that has been helping Harris get cover so far. This one interview will decide Bash's career, just as Candy Crowley's career was decided when she interfered and unfairly reached out during the second debate between then-President Obama and Mitt Romney. Bash doesn't want to be in the journalistic hall of shame. She doesn't need to be a bulldog or a master of the ambush. She can just ask the simple, very direct questions that voters want answered.
CNN anchor: Did Harris 'wait too long' to schedule her first interview?
Here are some questions Bash should pose to Harris:
1. President Biden tapped you to lead the effort to stem the flow of migrants across the southern border in March 2021. That never happened. Why?
2. How many people have entered the country without an invitation since you and Joe Biden took office?
3. What was your role in the withdrawal from Afghanistan?
4. In your acceptance speech, you referenced the horrific events that took place in Israel on October 7th and the deaths of innocent people in Gaza. Was it your intention to in any way equate the October 7th massacre with Israel's actions in Gaza since then?
5. Did Israel have the right to attack Hezbollah last weekend as a preemptive strike against the terrorist missile forces?
6. Does Israel have the right to attack Iran to prevent new attacks from Iran?
7. If Israel were attacked by Iran, would it be justified for Israel to destroy the oil export facilities on Khag Island?
8. If China attempts to invade Taiwan, will U.S. forces be used to defend Taiwan?
9. Should we expand the size of the Supreme Court?
10. How much of our GDP should we spend on the Pentagon?
11. How would you solve the recruiting crisis facing the military?
12. For America to take the lead and actually dominate in AI and supercomputing, we need to at least double our total domestic energy production. This can be most easily accomplished by building new nuclear power plants. Do you support their construction?
13. You were a staunch opponent of fracking during the 2019 presidential campaign. What is your policy on fracking now?
14. What is the top marginal tax rate you would like to see enacted into law, and at what level of adjusted gross income should it apply?
15. What is the most important issue on which you disagree with President Biden?
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Please note that these are all direct and simple questions. The rule of any serious journalist is do not have Multiple questions cannot be asked at the same time, and only the last question above requires two answers, because the answers are closely related. One question at a time requires the guest to stay focused on answering that question. Bash is very good at her job, and if she stays true to her mission of informing the public, her already stellar reputation will only get stronger.
Hugh Hewitt is the host of “The Hugh Hewitt Show,” broadcast weekdays from 6:00 AM to 9:00 AM on the Salem Radio Network and simulcast on the Salem News Channel. Hugh wakes up America on over 400 affiliates nationwide and on all streaming platforms where SNC is available. He is a frequent guest on Fox News Channel's News Roundtable hosted by Bret Baier weekdays at 6:00 PM ET. A native of Ohio and a graduate of Harvard University and the University of Michigan Law School, Hewitt has been a professor of law at Chapman University's Fowler School of Law, where he has taught constitutional law since 1996. Hewitt began his eponymous radio show in Los Angeles in 1990. Hewitt has appeared frequently on all major national news television stations, hosted television shows on PBS and MSNBC, contributed to all major American newspapers, authored 12 books, and moderated numerous Republican presidential debates. He most recently moderated the November 2023 Republican presidential debate in Miami and four Republican presidential debates in 2015-2016. In his radio show and column, Hewitt focuses on the Constitution, national security, American politics, the Cleveland Browns and the Guardians. During his 40 years of broadcasting experience, Hewitt has interviewed tens of thousands of guests, from Democrats Hillary Clinton and John Kerry to Republicans George W. Bush and Donald Trump. In this column, we preview the top stories that will be headlining today's radio/television shows.
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