Keep in mind all of the kvetching about Vice President Kamala Harris not doing sufficient interviews?
Nicely, prepare to maneuver the goalposts, as a result of regardless of Harris’ media-heavy week forward, the kvetching continues.
Crew Harris-Walz is doing numerous media appearances this week.
Monday: Harris will seem on CBS’ “60 Minutes”; operating mate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz will cease by ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”
Tuesday: Harris will seem on ABC’s morning present “The View,” Howard Stern’s “Stern Show,” and CBS’ “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.”
Thursday: Harris will take part in a Univision city corridor.
A Harris interview with the favored podcast “Call Her Daddy,” which holds its personal with Joe Rogan on Spotify, dropped Sunday evening. The podcast averages about 10 million per episode, and host Alexandra Cooper simply signed a $125 million cope with Sirius XM to distribute the present.
So now that Harris is getting the phrase out, all these well-meaning critics must be correctly sated, proper? In fact not. As an alternative, they’re all furiously shifting the goalposts.
On Sunday, The New York Instances sniffed that “Harris Will Appear in a Whirlwind of Interviews, Most of Them Friendly.”
To begin with, why would any candidate do unfriendly interviews? They’re making an attempt to win elections, not play a recreation of gotcha. The actual query campaigns face is how finest can they enhance their possibilities of successful the election? Going to battle with a hostile reporter, fairly frankly, can be idiotic.
However then once more, are Harris’ interviews this week actually “friendly”?
Is the “Call Her Daddy” podcast “friendly”? The Instances’ proof that it will be pleasant was to explain the present as “a popular podcast about sex, dating and relationships. The interview, which focuses on abortion rights and other women’s issues, is set to be released on Sunday evening.” Ah, okay—it’s hosted by a lady who cares about girls’s points, ergo it have to be “friendly” to the girl candidate.
Donald Trump, Melania Trump, Beth Ostrosky, and Howard Stern attend the Washington Wizards vs. New York Knicks recreation on Nov. 4, 2005.
The Instances doesn’t even hassle backing up its “friendly” declare about “The View,” however provided that it’s hosted by a bunch of girls, possibly the friendliness is simply implied. Stern endorsed Joe Biden in 2020, ergo he have to be “friendly” to the Harris-Walz marketing campaign.” However “Stern Show” is an ideal instance of the precise form of media Harris must be doing. In response to Howard Stern’s radio community, “74% of his audience are between 25-54 years of age with an average household income of $160k. 73% Male and 27% female. 34% college graduates, 85% white.”
Who do Democrats wrestle most with? Males, non-college graduates, and whites. The present couldn’t be a extra tailored alternative for Harris to maybe convert some persuadable voters. So what if Stern offers her an help with an endorsement or form phrases? Her job is to go the place the votes are, and Stern has them.
As for Stephen Colbert, as he as soon as mentioned, “reality has a well-known liberal bias.” His late-night present averages practically 3 million nightly viewers, plus who is aware of what number of extra gobble up cllps on social media the following morning. Once more, stopping by “The Late Show” is a great transfer by Harris, regardless of how a lot the Instances needs to heap scorn on the transfer.
I might enterprise to guess that Colbert’s late-night viewers has a larger share of undecided voters than just about every other outlet or program mentioned thus far. It’s not strictly a political viewers, in any case. It’s a pop culture-loving, entertainment-seeking one.
However the deeper flaw of Luntz’s argument is that the identify of the 2024 recreation isn’t undecided voters. It’s voter engagement and activation. All of the outdated white males on this planet can’t save Trump if sufficient younger folks vote, if sufficient single girls vote, if sufficient Black and Brown voters vote, if sufficient college-educated progressives vote. Every little thing Harris does for these final 4 weeks goes to be with one purpose in thoughts: guaranteeing that her core base of assist seems and votes in as overwhelmingly a quantity as doable.
As for Harris, she has no want for hostile media. It might accomplish nothing. Fortunately, she has executed a fantastic job tuning out all of the unsolicited “advice” lobbed her approach by individuals who don’t share her purpose of successful the election.
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