2 days Ago
Vice President and selected Democrat nominee Kamala Harris did not have to wait like former President and GOP nominee Donald Trump for the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) to get their technology together on Tuesday. They were right on time for this "Conversation with Vice President Kamala Harris" in Philadelphia. It is not surprising that Harris was given the JV Team of journalists to moderate this conversation.
Gerren Keith Gaynor, White House correspondent and managing editor on politics for The Grio; POLITICO correspondent and MSNBC analyst Eugene Daniels; and NPR's Tonya Mosley are not hard-hitters, and nobody would be able to pick them out of a lineup. They are all young and green, probably exactly as Harris wanted. Advertisement It is also par for the course that they treated the selected Democrat nominee with kid gloves.
There were no combative questions out the gate. Daniels led off by thanking her for her time and acknowledging that she was busy. ABC's Rachel Scott could have used some etiquette lessons from him.
DANIELS: We want to start with an issue that Americans across the country say is their No. 1 concern, and that is the economy. A question that has been asked of you, and everybody on the Democrat side, is whether or not voters are better off now than they were four years ago.
Are they better off than they were four years ago? Harris thanked the journalists and the NABJ for having her and gave a mini-word salad about the important work they do and how they must ensure organizations like NABJ "always have the resources and the platforms to deliver the voices that must be heard." What?! No doubt this was so she could pull from her mental Rolodex of rehearsed talking points on the topic. It was as expected.
Harris gave the same canned talking points she spouted at the debate. Almost verbatim. Four years ago, when we came in during the worst unemployment since the Great Depression.
We came in during the worst public health...
Jennifer Oliver O'Connell.
