Jonathan Martin, a senior political columnist for Politico, said Friday that Vice President Kamala Harris plans to win the presidential election by not fully revealing her policies during the short campaign period.
Harris is still releasing her policy platform Campaign website As of August 16, nearly four weeks into the presidential campaign, Martin said on “Squawk Box” that Harris shouldn’t reveal details about her policies because she would rather make the election about former President Donald Trump. (RELATED: Harris once bragged about working “behind the scenes” to get transgender inmates sex-reassignment surgery)
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Politico columnist says Harris’ “gamble” is to “run out the clock” during the campaign by revealing few policies. pic.twitter.com/SN7yd9bGD2
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) August 16, 2024
“I think her bet is to make this race a question of, ‘Do you want a Donald Trump persona?’ The Democratic Party has thrived for almost nine years whenever Donald Trump is mentioned,” Martin said. “When the race — American politics — is about Donald Trump and what he does, the Democrats do well. So, obviously, that’s going to be her strategy, layering in a sense of security based on her record and the message that she’s someone who’s willing to change to a more centrist political persona.”
“And I think that’s really what the campaign is about,” he said. “Certainly, she’s going to flesh out the policies. I think she’s going to have to do that to get through the next 80 days.”
Moderator Andrew Ross Sorkin then asked Martin whether Ms Harris’s lack of a strong policy platform could be a “problem”.
“I think that’s going to happen if we see anything like what we saw two weeks ago, when we had really bad unemployment and a two-day market collapse,” Martin said. “And I think that sparked some concern that, ‘Oh, she might not be able to run as the de facto incumbent. She might have to run away from Biden and the White House.’ Obviously, those concerns have eased over the past two weeks because it wasn’t a harbinger of a broader panic in the economy.”
“So I think a lot of this will depend on how the economy and external events go. We’re not yet talking about the possibility of a bigger war in the Middle East or instability overseas,” the columnist continued. “If that happens, it’s clear that she’ll be forced to be more precise about where she actually stands on policy…I think her bet, Andrew, is to run out of time here, say things that will dominate the headlines every single day, and hope that she can run a great campaign and beat Trump like Biden did in ’20.”
MSNBC analyst Michael Steele warned Monday that Harris could face policy-related “speed bumps” during the election, including on the Israel-Hamas war.
Harris is scheduled to deliver her first major policy speech on her economic plan on Friday in North Carolina, where she will prioritize cutting costs for Americans. According to To the New York Times.
“The good news for her, frankly, is that she is not and never has been bound by deep ideological foundations,” Martin concluded. “She wants to win the election and she wants to be the next president. She’s going to do whatever it takes to achieve that and she’s going to essentially follow what her advisors say she should do in terms of policy and content. It’s hard to remember a presidential campaign where candidates from both major parties were so far from grounded in an actual ideological worldview. The great thing about this election is that a lot of the action will happen after January 25th.”
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