‘Part Of It Is Gender Biased’: MSNBC Panel Points To Sexism As One Reason Why Voters Are ‘Unsure’ About Harris

Panelists on “Morning Joe” claimed Thursday that voters who expressed uncertainty about Vice President Kamala Harris’ policies or leadership abilities were “gender biased.”

Harris has come under fire for not providing details on policy and for generally avoiding the media, including not holding press conferences since President Joe Biden announced he was ending his reelection bid July 21. “Morning Joe” co-host Mika Brzezinski and guests Huma Abedin and Forbes Women editor Maggie McGrath said that those who expressed doubts about Harris needed to “use their imagination” and overcome “stereotypes.”

“It shows the real-life ramifications of the underrepresentation of women in leadership. Effectively, what researchers found is that when people assess a woman for a role she has never held before, they need to use their imagination, and they are bad at using their imagination, according to this research,” McGrath told Brzezinski.

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“It seems as though ambition is still a bad word when it comes to women. A lot of these amorphous feelings, this idea that women are emotional, unlikable, difficult, some of the other terms that came up in that report, it’s like the more accomplished you are, the more suspect you are,” Abedin, a long-time aide to Hillary Clinton, said. “There was a term called Tall Poppy Syndrome, which I thought was very interesting, the more you stand out, the more you’re criticized as a woman. And to be a commander-in-chief, to be running to be commander-in-chief, well, there’s no greater, higher ambition than that. So I think some part of it is gender biased.”

She has backed away from left-wing positions she held during her campaign for the 2020 Democratic Party nomination for president primarily through statements by campaign aides to reporters. Harris’