‘Talking in circles’: Kamala triggers frenzy
Kamala Harris triggered a furious backlash after appearing on the world’s second most popular podcast. Here’s why some listeners are so incensed.
Kamala Harris’ appearance on the second most popular podcast in the world as America reels from a devastating hurricane has triggered a storm of controversy.
The Democratic presidential candidate appeared with host Alex Cooper on her wildly popular “Call Her Daddy” podcast this week, speaking at length about women’s rights and abortion.
Cooper said she had wrestled with the decision to invite a politician on her podcast, which has over five million downloads a month and a huge base of young female listeners.
“As you guys know, I do not usually discuss politics or have politicians on the show because I want ‘Call Her Daddy’ to be a place that everyone feels comfortable tuning in,” she said.
Fans were quick to lash Cooper for not addressing the Biden-Harris administration’s response to Hurricane Helene, which killed more than 225 people after ripping through the US southeast.
“Call Her Daddy was more important than the millions who could use aid with rebuilding their homes?” one fan wrote.
“Did you discuss the plan for getting all the bodies that got swept into the trees and along the riverbanks in North Carolina during the taping of this podcast?” added another.
“Ask her about what she’s doing to help hurricane victims instead of talking in circles about women’s rights,” wrote another.
At a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday, former president Donald Trump took aim at Harris for offering $750 in federal aid to Americans who lost their homes in the hurricane.
“They’re offering them $750, to people whose homes have been washed away,” he said.
“And yet we send tens of billions of dollars to foreign countries that most people have never heard of.”
The Federal Emergency Management Agency was quick to clarify that additional assistance on top of the $750 payment for immediate needs was available for those impacted by the hurricane.
FEMA said the Biden administration had provided over $45 million in “flexibly, up-front funding” to hurricane survivors, offering more than 11.5 million meals and 400,000 to the affected regions.
‘Outrageously inaccurate’: Harris laces into Trump
During her “Call Her Daddy” appearance, Harris, 59, passionately recalled how she began her career as a prosecutor inspired to take on domestic abusers.
One of her best friends in high school, Wanda Kagan, had told Harris her stepfather was abusing her, which motivated her to want to defend others suffering from similar terror.
“We have to talk about it. Child sexual assault is something that far more people than the public discourse about it acknowledges,” Harris said while emphasizing the need to “not stigmatize it.”
Harris also laced into her GOP opponent, former President Donald Trump, for appointing the Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe v. Wade, ripping him for telling women, “I will be your protector.”
She bristled when asked about Trump’s suggestion that she supports abortion “right up until birth, and even after birth.”
“That is so outrageously inaccurate, and it’s so insulting to suggest that would be happening and that women would be doing that. It’s not happening anywhere,” she said. “This guy is full of lies.”
Some listeners lashed out at Cooper for not asking Harris about illegal immigration, which has emerged as one of the key issues in the looming presidential election.
“Wait what about the abuse and crime caused by the illegal immigrants flooding the country,” wrote one listener.
Raunchy podcast host defends interview
In a clip shared to Instagram after the podcast aired, Cooper conceded she “couldn’t hit every policy” with Harris.
“I totally understand everyone has different political opinions, but I feel really good that the entire episode is about women.
“I did what I knew would apply to the Daddy gang,” she continued. “And I talked about women.”
“I talk about topics like mental health, relationships, sex, sexuality, trauma,” Cooper added.
“Overall, my focus is women and the day-to-day issues that we face. … At the end of the day, I couldn’t see a world in which one of the main conversations of this election is women and I’m not a part of it.”
Victor Shi, a youth engagement coordinator for the Harris-Walz campaign, hit back at criticism levelled against Harris for appearing on the podcast.
He pointed out that “Don’t Call Her Daddy” was the most-listened to podcast for women aged 18 to 24 and reached a large audience who weren’t political.
“Alex Cooper matters. She matters for young people. She matters for women. And doing her podcast is an insanely smart & strategic move,” he wrote on X.
Harris under fire for “softball” media blitz
Harris has faced sustained criticism for seemingly avoiding tough interviews with a “softball” media blitz in recent weeks.
NY Times politics reporter Reid J. Epstein accused her of “repeatedly dodging direct questions” during an interview with MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle last month.
“Real Time” host Bill Maher also took aim at the Vice President over her choice of interviews.
“There has been a lot of pressure on her. She doesn’t do interviews. She doesn’t answer [questions]- so she sat for an interview. She said ‘Ok, I will answer your hardball questions.’ So she went on MSNBC,” Maher joked on his show.
“There were not-hardball questions, but I still expected not them to be rubbing her feet,” the liberal host added.
Former Draft Biden 2016 executive director Will Pierce, now a staunch Republican, accused Harris of “ignoring the needs of her main people.”
“Instead of her focusing on the issues, going on a hard-hitting interview, she’s just trying to go after her base,” he told Fox this week.
In one of the more hard-hitting interview she’s faced with CBS’ 60 Minutes, set to air today, Harris appeared to struggle to explain some of her economic policies.
“’My plan is about saying that when you invest in small businesses, you invest in the middle class, and you strengthen America’s economy. Small businesses are part of the backbone of America’s economy,’ she said in a snippet of the interview shared online.
CBS’ Bill Whitaker grilled her on that line, asking for specifics on her economic policy.
‘I’m going to make sure that the richest among us who can afford it, pay their fair share in taxes. It is not right that teachers and nurses and firefighters are paying a higher tax rate than billionaires and the biggest corporations. And I plan on making that fair,’ she said.
‘But we’re dealing with the real world here,’ Whitaker replied, asking how she would get it through Congress.
‘You know, when you talk quietly with a lot of folks in Congress, they know exactly what I’m talking about, because their constituents know exactly what I’m talking about. Their constituents are those firefighters and teachers and nurses,’ Harris replied.
Harris’ final gamble
Harris is making her final stand against Trump from the center, gambling that swing voters will want a moderate option as the US presidential election comes down to the wire.
It’s a stance that has left the 59-year-old vice president open to attacks of being both fickle and vague in her policy positions.
Since replacing President Joe Biden at the top of the Democratic ticket in July, Harris has distanced herself from some of the progressive positions she had endorsed just a few years ago, during her primary run for the 2020 contest.
“She seems so much more comfortable in explaining her positions now,” Robert Rowland, a professor of political communications at the University of Kansas told AFP.
The presidential election will come down to seven key swing states which don’t clearly favour one party over the other.
Harris and Trump are courting voters in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, concentrating their campaign efforts there in an effort to ensure victory.
In a razor-tight election, just a handful of votes in any of those states could decide the outcome.
- With AFP
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