For the first time in this strangest of all campaign seasons, the d-card has been played. Vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris produced the card during her and running mate Joe Biden’s joint ABC News interview with “World News Tonight” anchor David Muir.
Referencing an earlier interview with late-night TV host Stephen Colbert in which Harris revealed that the emotion she had displayed during the debates when she challenged Biden on his position on busing and segregation was all an act, Muir parroted Colbert’s question, which was how do “you go from being such a passionate opponent on such bedrock principles for you” to “pals” with the person you were attacking? Muir couched his own question this way: “I think the American people want to know that these aren’t debate moments, these aren’t political points, that when you say they were hurtful and personal, you mean that. I’m curious what the vice president has said to you since then that made you think, ‘OK. I’m OK with this. I can join this ticket’?”
This time Harris didn’t attempt an answer, instead dismissing the question as a “distraction from what we need to accomplish.”
Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?
Muir chose to take what was effectively an insult sitting down and didn’t press further. A fair question he might have asked is, “A distraction from what?” Harris’s truthfulness is one character trait the American people will want to know more about before they head to the polls. No amount of giggling is going to change that.
Again watch the moment in question from the debate. Notice that Harris appears on the verge of tears as she recounts this pivotal moment from her childhood.
Harris needs to state once and for all whether this was a staged moment to score political points against her then-opponent or whether she was sincere. And if it was the latter, why didn’t she admit as much to Colbert? Finally, how does she reconcile feeling so strongly about Biden’s views on race and then accepting his invitation to become his running mate?
Inquiring minds want to know.
