Kamala Harris Whiffs So Badly on Stephen Colbert's Softball Question That He Can't Let It Go
Pete Buttigieg and Gavin Newsom are probably still laughing.
When Vice President Kamala Harris made an appearance Wednesday on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” she had every chance in front of liberals in the studio and at home to make her case for why she can succeed President Joe Biden in the nation’s top job.
But in an interview with the most sycophantic liberal in late-night comedy, she struck out badly — and on the softest of softball questions.
As conservative commentator Tom Elliott put it in a Twitter post: “Colbert stumps @VP Harris on what her job is.”
And that’s exactly what happened. Check it out here.
After some ice-breaking chit-chat, mainly about the comedy series “Veep,” the CBS late-night host noted that there’s no description of the role of the vice president in the Constitution and asked her, “What is the actual role on a daily basis as you have found it?”
That’s a reasonable question, and one asked in the friendliest Democrat atmosphere on television outside maybe “The View.” But Harris came up embarrassingly empty.
First, she declared that Joe Biden “is the president of the United States,” and then she meandered a bit before finishing up with a few more platitudes for Biden and describing him as an “extraordinary leader” — statements that got roars of approval from the audience that would have put the barking seals who show up for “The View” to shame.
It was such an obvious tap-dance that Colbert pressed in a follow-up.
“That’s an excellent answer,” he said. “And the question was, ‘What is the job of the vice president?'”
That shouldn’t have been hard. Harris has been in the office for more than two years now. All she had to do was describe what exactly she’s been doing all that time.
“Advise the president on policy” maybe? “Use Senate experience to help guide White House legislation through the upper chamber”? “Stand behind the president for pictures while he signs executive orders and pretend to be proud of it”?
Anyone who’s been doing the same job for 26 months, doing anything genuinely worthwhile for 26 months, should be able to explain at least its outlines without much of a problem — but Harris couldn’t.
Instead, she launched into a rambling description of her attendance at the international security conference in Munich in February where she declared that Russia had “committed crimes against humanity” in Ukraine.
That got her another round of ferocious applause, but it’s not exactly a statement of unparalleled political courage. (Stunningly obvious is a better description.)
And as a rough transcript of the show makes clear, that was pretty much the discussion as far as Harris’ job responsibilities go.
The performance was blasted on social media.
Interviewer: what is your job?
Me: well, my boss is a really great leader— Joe Pike just don’t call me late for dinner (@JoeP67jerseys) March 16, 2023
Did not answer the question
— Linda VOZ (@avoiceforothers) March 16, 2023
Still waiting for her to answer the question
— Tricia Anderson (@triciaander_21) March 16, 2023
And a few users noticed that Harris didn’t mention one job she was given by Biden to great fanfare back in 2021 — taking charge of the crisis on the nation’s southern border.
That was supposed to be Harris’ responsibility, remember? It was almost exactly two years ago when Biden declared that his vice president was “the most qualified person” to take charge of the unfolding disaster at the border that was directly caused by him and his policies.
Harris performed exactly as anyone would expect from a leader of the modern Democratic Party. She tried to blame former President Donald Trump for the problem, she tried to ignore it, she came up with fake talk about “root causes” that literally no one believed, and then she basically moved on, counting on an establishment media not to dwell on a failure that would dog a Republican until the day he died.
Now, basically, it’s forgotten — not even worth a mention in a direct question about “what do you do all day?”
Great work, Ms. Border Czar!
— Mom™ I am Parody, a Shill, some say! (@thereallivemary) March 16, 2023
As more than a few Twitter users noted, one of the most troubling parts of the video is the response of the audience. There’s obviously no thought behind the mindless cheering of Biden’s name, which makes the applause that greeted Harris’ condemnation of Russian war crimes sound as heartfelt and meaningful as a Ukrainian flag on a Twitter account.
What the studio audience chose not to see was excruciatingly obvious to anyone watching after the fact: Harris has done nothing of merit in her time in the vice president’s office; she can claim no achievement. She can’t even describe how she passes her days.
And all of this was in the warm confines of “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” the CBS network’s running in-kind contribution to the Democratic Party and its electoral hopes.
Whatever smiling face Colbert put on it, his question about Harris’ job made it clear he wasn’t impressed with her answer. And Democrats, who have to be thinking about a replacement for the 80-year-old Biden — whether it’s before or after the 2024 election — couldn’t have been impressed either, no matter how much Politburo applause there might have been.
As transportation secretary, Pete Buttigieg hasn’t exactly covered himself in glory — his tenure has been marked mainly by entitlement, followed by ineptitude, followed by public humiliation. As California’s governor, Gavin Newsom has been just as unimpressive, surviving COVID scandals only through the help of a slavishly loyal California media and Democratic Party that still couldn’t save him from having to fight off a recall election.
But both men could have swatted a softball question like that right out of the park.
Harris whiffed so badly Colbert could have put it on a tee for her and it would still be sitting there when the interview was over — and that speaks volumes about her fitness for the job in the first place.
Somewhere, Buttigieg, Newsom and just about any other Democrat even thinking about trying for the White House in 2024 had to be laughing.
And laughing hard.
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