Kamala’s very weird CNN sit-down failed to answer any questions

Kamala Harris’ much anticipated interview with CNN solved one issue. But there are lots of other questions it failed to answer.

• Live blog: Kamala Harris interview reaction

ANALYSIS

Well, at least the mystery of why Kamala Harris’s team has been keeping her under wraps, away from real media, has been solved.

Outside of heavily scripted, choreographed, and teleprompter’ed events like the Democrat convention, she’s an absolute disaster of a communicator.

Thursday night’s (US time) sit-down between Harris, who bizarrely brought along her running mate Tim Walz, and CNN’s Dana Bash was supposed to allow Harris room to prove that she could do media after nearly 40 days hiding from the press while allowing her to tidy up her record in a reasonably friendly arena.

It accomplished neither.

Kamala Harris, and Tim Walz, in first sit down interview with CNN. Source - CNN

Instead, the whole thing looked – to borrow a charge Walz and Harris love to throw at Republicans – weird.

The setting, in an anonymous conference room somewhere, looked less presidential than it did like a meeting with HR.

One commentator said it looked like the three were waiting for a delayed flight at the empty bar of a small town airport.

Away from friendly crowds and teleprompters, Kamala Harris has trouble getting her point across (Photo by Robyn Beck / AFP)

Then, on issue after issue, Harris was unable to come up with coherent positions on why she had changed her position on fracking, how the southern border got so out of control under her watch, or whether Bidenomics was a disaster.

In place of policy, viewers got mostly platitudes: “My values have not changed,” she repeated time and again, to explain her shifting positions.

Nor was there much of an answer to what she would do differently on Day One of a Harris presidency that she hadn’t done previously during three and a half years as veep.

Bash, for the most part, largely gave Harris and Walz a pass on all the big issues.

And after a few rounds of barely tough questions, the whole thing descended into cheerleading about how wonderful the Democratic ticket was.

Yet whether it has much impact on the race – which is tightening back up after Harris opened a post-convention lead – is doubtful.

Knowing the likelihood it would all go pear shaped, it aired on the Thursday night before a long holiday weekend in the US when it would not get huge amounts of viewers.

It also calls into question the likelihood of Harris participating in any debate with Trump as her team looks for any excuse to blow up a head to head match in a couple of weeks’ time.

Originally published as Kamala’s very weird CNN sit-down failed to answer any questions