The Democratic Party claims Trump and the Republicans are authoritarians ready to abolish democracy. Interestingly Trump remains accountable to the press but Harris eludes them. Pictured: Vice President Kamala Harris. Photo Credit: Kamala Harris/X.
With the official presidential campaign only a couple of weeks away, Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, has evaded a primary race and avoided any serious press availability for close to a month. The Washington Post, a proudly liberal publication, and Jim Geraghty of National Review have combined forces in one of Geraghty’s recent Morning Jolt articles to make a list of questions Harris should be asked. I would like to offer my summary of the best ones and let you decide whether or not Harris will ever be asked any of them and what you would be looking for in her answers.
On the domestic front, Harris’s campaign team indicated she no longer holds the same position on numerous issues she backed during her 2020 campaign. Geraghty suggested the following: “Back then, you supported banning fracking, abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement, defunding the police, instituting mandatory buybacks of assault weapons, eliminating private health insurance, and guaranteeing federal jobs.” Geraghty also pointed out she changed positions on packing the Supreme Court and her definition of illegal immigrants, stating in 2019, “We are not going to treat people who are undocumented and cross the border as criminals,” and “an undocumented immigrant is not a criminal.” One of her spokespersons recently revealed that Harris believes, “unauthorized border crossings are illegal.”
According to Geraghty, the press could have a field day on these developments, asking her: What caused you to change your mind on these issues? Did you learn more that convinced you that your old positions were wrong, unfeasible, or ill-informed? Or are those the positions that you felt were most popular in a Democratic presidential primary, and now you’re running in a general election? What guarantee does any voter have that your new positions won’t be as quickly and quietly abandoned as the old ones once you’re elected? I imagine some of the joy in the Democratic campaign might dissipate if she faced a press interested in more than her scripted lines. A press that demanded she explain her thinking, her new outlook, and why she has seemingly reversed her ideas.
Immigration would provide a host of possibilities as Geraghty and the Post agreed. The argument over calling Harris the Border Czar continues to be the most disingenuous spin during the 2024 campaign. The title bears little to do with the fact she was asked to head the Administration’s efforts regarding illegal immigration. When it was convenient there are numerous examples of the press and Harris happily accepting the title. Now that former president Donald Trump and the Republican campaign point this out it serves as some kind of insult or misinformation effort. Geraghty emphasizes the absurdity of the matter, once again providing a series of questions that Harris should have long ago been asked: “Stipulating that your allies prefer the term ‘migration czar,’ where were all those migrants headed toward? Wasn’t it the U.S.–Mexico border? How can you or anyone else contend that you could be the administration’s point person for ‘migration’ without having any role in, or responsibility for, our policies and the enforcement of them at the border? Just what did you do in this position?”
There were several more areas of inquiry about immigration, but other issues deserve to be explored. How about inflation? “What caused the U.S. inflation rate to spike from 1.4 percent in January 2021 to 9.1 percent in June 2022? Is your contention that roughly $24 trillion in federal spending and $6 trillion in new public debt have nothing to do with the high inflation of recent years? What happens when the supply of money increases dramatically, but the supply of goods and services does not increase at a similar rate?”
Building on that, she recently indicated that on day one she would address the price gouging, especially concerning food prices. Just before the Democratic Convention she announced an economic plan that included price controls, something usually associated with countries like Venezuela or Cuba, nations where a state-controlled economy dominates. Her campaign says their candidate will make it “clear that big corporations can’t unfairly exploit consumers to run up excessive profits on food and groceries.” Geraghty proposed a line of questioning that unmasks the idea that Harris can somehow be President Joe Biden’s vice president but run as someone new to the job. “If, as has been widely reported, you are indeed the current vice president of the United States, why are you unable to enact any of these policies right now? Have you mentioned these ideas to President Biden? Does President Biden oppose any of these ideas you’re proposing?”
Having held Harris to some account on immigration and inflation, Geraghty joins the battle over something I have found most curious within the legacy media: Why has there been so little interest expressed about Harris’ role during the period when Biden began to actively seek a second term and his downfall on July 21st? As Geraghty writes, “Speaking of President Biden, when did you notice that old age was starting to impede his ability to do his duties? What did you do? Whom did you tell? Earlier this year, Axios reported that ‘from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Biden is dependably engaged.’ How would you characterize the president outside of those hours? Does that sound like an acceptable number of hours for the president of the United States to be of sound mind each day? Was the administration’s plan to hope that all crises requiring presidential attention and decisions would occur between late morning and mid-afternoon?”
Perhaps the questions would not be posed with such delicious sarcasm, but Geraghty finds the essence of the problem. Nobody can question Harris’s appointment as Biden’s successor if the Democratic Party, its voters, adherents, and supporters are prepared to go along with the sleight of hand that allows its nominee to avoid intra-party debates, caucuses, primaries, questions from the press and all the usual vetting that a national campaign entails. What sticks in the craw of independent voters, Democrats with integrity and those who think democratic ideals still matter is the notion that the nominee should now be celebrated for elevating a vibe into a campaign for president. Vibes are not policies. Feelings or “tingles down the leg,” as one MSNBC described an Obama appearance, do not lead a nation, create a geopolitical strategy, or proscribe policy for an Administration. Geraghty asked a quiver full of other questions regarding foreign policy, but the point stands. When will the vice president of the United States, the Democratic nominee for president hold a no-holds-barred press conference like the ones her opponent holds regularly? The Democratic Party claims Trump and the Republicans are authoritarians ready to abolish democracy. Interestingly Trump remains accountable to the press but Harris eludes them. She wants an interview scheduled before the end of the month — about two weeks from now.
As Geraghty reminds: For perspective, early voting begins in Pennsylvania on Sept. 16. In Minnesota, Vermont and Virginia, early voting opens around Sept. 20.
Dave Redekop is a retired elementary resource teacher who now works part-time at the St. Catharines Courthouse as a Registrar. He has worked on political campaigns since high school and attended university in South Carolina for five years, where he earned a Master’s in American History with a specialization in Civil Rights. Dave loves reading biographies.
