Kamala Harris Has a Coverage Problem That Won’t Go Away

By Graham J Noble

Kamala Harris has been the Democratic Party’s presumptive presidential nominee for just over two weeks now—and for the past few days, the official nominee. In that time, she hasn’t held a single press conference, scheduled or unscheduled. From the Harris-Walz campaign’s perspective, that’s probably not a bad thing, given her inability to deliver spontaneous, meaningful speeches. However, she can’t just drag it out—not for three whole months. No matter how many campaign events she attends, the current vice president won’t be able to resist the media for long.

So what is Harris’ campaign strategy? How will her team get to Election Day without resorting to more word salads – or at least with as few words as possible?

The Problem with Kamala Harris’ Word Salad

Kamala Harris’s life would be a lot easier if she were a woman of few words. But she’s not. The vice president loves to talk. In fact, she seems to have an irresistible tendency to use as many words as possible to convey even the simplest concepts. Unfortunately for those hoping to propel her to the Oval Office, Harris seems to have a hard time understanding the ideas and topics she’s discussing. This lack of understanding leads her to repeat certain words and phrases. In effect, she’s treading water—some might be tempted to use the word “babbling”—as she tries to figure out how to express herself effectively. When she can’t, she tends to resort to her go-to defense mechanism: a strange and sometimes inappropriate burst of laughter.

Take for example a 2022 interview in which Harris gave his views on the war in Ukraine:

“Ukraine is a country in Europe. It is located next to another country called Russia. Russia is a bigger country. Russia is a powerful country. Russia decided to invade a smaller country called Ukraine. So basically it is a mistake.”

This is just one of many occasions when the White House candidate has used multiple words to say nothing relevant, useful, rational or informative. It’s the kind of embarrassment her aides are trying to avoid.

Kamala Harris’s campaign has several options for limiting the damage. The most obvious is to follow the example of the current White House team. To protect Joe Biden from awkward blunders—and they don’t always succeed—the president’s aides make sure he doesn’t take reporters’ questions until they’ve been approved. Americans should expect a few carefully orchestrated press conferences from Kamala Harris between now and the November election. The corporate media will probably be only too happy to play along.

Now that she has chosen her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, it is likely that he will serve as Harris’s primary surrogate. Walz is already busy making himself visible, launching attacks on Harris’ 2024 opponent Donald Trump, his running mate J.D. Vance, and Republicans in general. However, many of Walz’s verbal attacks have fallen short of their mark. Most recently, he has tried to paint Vance as some kind of Yale-educated elitist—yet Vance grew up poor. It is questionable how effective a surrogate Walz will be.

Ultimately, Americans will be voting for a president, not a vice president. Voters want to hear what Trump and Kamala Harris have to say. Anything Walz or Vance says—no matter how important, intelligent, or insightful—is really just background noise.

Another basement campaign?

In 2020, Biden ran what his critics called a basement campaign. He was able to get away with it by largely using the COVID-19 pandemic as an excuse not to hold major public campaign events — even as Trump held massive rallies. Kamala Harris may well take a cue from her current boss and run what he has called a basement campaign.Liberty Nation NewsEditor Mark Angelides has dubbed this strategy the “rose basement strategy.” It’s a play on the “rose garden strategy” used in the past—with varying degrees of success—by sitting presidents seeking reelection.

A debate with Trump could be the main event that could trip Harris up. Both presidential candidates have agreed in principle to face off, but there is disagreement over which network should host it. Trump is trying to get Fox News because he knows that, while it may not be exactly hosted by his biggest fans, it is the only major network that will not tilt the scales in Harris’ favor. Harris, meanwhile, wants a debate hosted by ABC News. Unless she can do what Hillary Clinton did in 2016—get the debate questions in advance—the vice president could find herself in trouble with Trump in an impromptu face-off.

Without having won a single primary, Kamala Harris is now campaigning for the White House on the strength of Biden’s record, which many find troubling. And she is competing against a man who does not mince words and can speak coherently for hours, whether he has prepared a speech or not. More importantly, Trump has always shown a willingness to make himself available to reporters at any time and in any place. Perhaps this, more than anything else—and even more than policy platforms, at least for some Americans—is what could make the biggest difference between the candidates, in the eyes of many voters. The vice president will find herself at a huge disadvantage if she continues to avoid the press for much longer.

• About the Author: Chief political correspondent and satirist at LibertyNation.com. Raised and inspired by his father, a World War II veteran, Graham learned early to laugh and be a gentleman. After college, he decided to join the British Army, where he served for several years and saw combat on four continents. In addition to being a news and politics junkie, Graham enjoys laughing, drinking, and being outdoors. Combining all three gives him the most pleasure. Individual freedom is one of the few things he takes seriously.
• Source: This article was published by Liberty Nation