This Answer From Harris's CNN Interview Proved She Knows How To Handle Trump
Kamala Harris is refusing to take Trump's bait and pay any attention to his bigoted attacks on her identity. Instead, she focuses on her message. This messaging discipline has defined her campaign.
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On Thursday, Vice President Kamala Harris and Governor Tim Walz sat down with CNN’s Dana Bash for their first interview as the Democratic ticket.
The interview was wide-ranging and packed with strong moments from Harris and Walz, but there was one moment in particular that I wanted to spotlight as the perfect example of Kamala Harris’s messaging discipline.
“What I want to ask you about is what [Trump] said last month,” Dana Bash began. “He suggested that you ‘happened to turn Black recently for political purposes,’ questioning a core part of your identity…” Bash didn’t end this with a question, expecting Harris to jump in.
Kamala Harris paused, smirked, then said, “Same old, tired playbook. Next question, please.”
Dana Bash responded, “That's it?”
Harris replied: “That's it.”
That’s it. That’s the perfect way to handle Donald Trump, who has been unraveling into unhinged depravity as Kamala Harris rises in the polls. Harris hasn’t taken Trump’s bait and has yet to humor any of his petty, bigoted attacks about her identity. Rather than get distracted and go down a rabbit hole defending herself against baseless attacks, Harris sticks to her message.
This kind of response makes Trump appear small, while Harris positions herself as the big adult in the room talking about the issues that matter. It also resonates with the millions of Americans who are tired of the vitriol and negativity of the Trump era.
Imagine what the headline and lead paragraphs of this CNN article would’ve been if Harris had played into Trump’s attacks. It would’ve been all about her response to Trump and not her own message. That moment would’ve been the main moment CNN advertised and what most news organizations covered. Instead, she got to make the news she wanted to make and stick to the message she wanted to deliver.
When Trump originally made the racist attack questioning whether Kamala Harris is Black at the National Association of Black Journalists, he was hoping that he could bait Harris into a distracting back and forth about race. He wanted her to lean into identity politics, which is something she’s strayed away from during her campaign - instead letting surrogates highlight the historic nature of her candidacy while she sticks to kitchen table issues and outlines her vision for the country.
The day Trump made that initial attack, on July 31, Kamala Harris responded in a manner similar to her CNN interview but with a bit more detail. While at an event in Texas, Harris said:
“This afternoon, Donald Trump spoke at the annual meeting of the National Association of Black Journalists, and it was the same old show. The divisiveness and the disrespect. And let me just say: the American people deserve better. The American people deserve better. The American people deserve a leader who tells the truth, a leader who does not respond with hostility and anger when confronted with the facts. We deserve a leader who understands that our differences do not divide us; they are an essential source of our strength.”
You can see the messaging discipline in those remarks just ten days into her campaign. Harris didn’t engage in debating the details of Trump’s lies about her identity or even repeat exactly what he said. Harris simply highlighted that this is who Trump is and that Americans deserve better. It tied perfectly into her “We Are Not Going Back” slogan and allowed her to make implicit contrasts between herself and Trump as she outlined the leader America deserves.
This messaging focus from the Harris Campaign has been especially important over the past month, as both candidates have raced to define who Kamala Harris is. It’s a level of discipline that has been sorely lacking from the Trump Campaign, as Trump has flailed around angrily to the chagrin of campaign co-managers Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles.
As time passes, this continued contrast Kamala Harris is painting with Donald Trump is beginning to crystalize in a way Trump will have a hard time shifting. Americans are starting to make up their minds, and early voting will soon start. Polling is still showing Harris taking leads in key swing states, and she’s also leading Trump in national polling averages.
Now, in a reality where Kamala Harris spent the past month responding to every depraved attack Trump launched on her, this could have been a very different campaign run on Trump’s terms. Instead, Harris has opted to push a positive message while warning about the bigger picture dangers of Trump’s future administration with a focus on Project 2025.
Trump’s deep character flaws are inherent in Harris’s warnings about his second-term plans. That strategy was evident in her DNC speech, which expertly prosecuted the case against Trump’s authoritarianism.
For those who want Kamala Harris to win, this CNN interview is a promising indication of how she’ll perform at the debate. There was a lot of pressure put on this first interview, and in unscripted remarks, she continued to stay on message and not fall for bait. This skill will be vital in her debate with Trump on September 10.
If the Harris Campaign keeps this up, they’ll continue to be well-positioned for a win in November, and then we can finally put this Trump era behind us, once and for all.
Thanks, Ahmed. I’m glad to get your take on the interview since it was past my bedtime. Kamala handled things beautifully. And I learned today that the interviewer Dana doesn’t pronounce her name the way other Dana’s do. After the somewhat rude questioning attitude she exhibited, it was subtly clever of Kamala to use the more commonly used pronunciation, don’t you think.