Journalist Mark Halperin explained to Daily Caller News Foundation co-founder Tucker Carlson on Tuesday why Vice President Kamala Harris lacks a more effective response about her differences with President Joe Biden.
Harris told “The View” on Oct. 8 that nothing “comes to mind” when asked how she would govern differently from Biden. Halperin, on “The Tucker Carlson Show,” said Harris is reluctant to cross Biden or face criticism and is simply “not good at … answering questions.
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“The toughest question for her that I have seen is: ‘How will you be different from Joe Biden?’ Why can’t — why haven’t they thought through a better answer?” Carlson asked.
“It’s hard to get a straight answer about that. I think there are three things at play. Number one, she doesn’t want to appear disloyal, and that is something he does care about. As I said, he wants her to win, but he wants her to win his way. He doesn’t want her to win at his expense, okay? That is an ambivalence, but not the fundamental question of does he want her to win,” Halperin said. “So, number one, she doesn’t want to disrespect him. Number two, taking different positions from him involves risk. There could be a backlash, right? And, as I’ve said, that’s her main problem — she doesn’t like to take risks.”
Harris is currently slightly lagging behind former President Donald Trump in six of the seven top battleground states, according to the RealClearPolling averages. Biden’s current approval rating stands at 40.2%, with a disapproval rating 14 points higher, according to the FiveThirtyEight polling average.
“And then finally, there’s just a basic performative question with her. That’s not her only bad answer, right? That’s the one that people have focused on the most, but she’s just not good at delivering sound bites or complicated messages in a way that is helpful to her,” Halperin told Carlson. “You know, she does these interviews where nothing bad happens, and they give high fives that nothing bad happened — or only a few bad things happened.”
“None of these interviews has she come out of where people said, ‘Wow, now I get it. Now I get why this person should be my president.’ And that’s, again, just testament to — she’s just not that good at this thing called answering questions that are hard. Or easy,” he added, prompting Carlson to laugh.
Halperin, on his 2WAY platform, recently argued Harris is not unintelligent, but her public appearances showcase a “lack of decisiveness.”
“That, to me, is her Achilles’ heel; that is the thing that bedevils her,” the journalist said.
He added that the way Harris answered the question on “The View” seemed like “she was woken up in the middle of the night and someone said, ‘What is the air temperature on Mars?’ Like trying to get her bearings and figure it out.”
“Okay, so if that’s the answer you want to give, maybe a little more decisive than halting. It’s all over red Twitter … But it’s also the subject of many emails and texts I’ve gotten from Democrats today saying that if she loses, that could symbolize the whole thing,” Halperin said. “She’s had to walk this tightrope between supporting the Biden-Harris administration and distancing herself. She said she’s not Joe Biden — they’re different people, manifestly true — but that answer makes no sense to anybody I heard from, including her supporters.”
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