Kamala Harris Pulled Off ‘Smart Move’ Not Overly Attacking Trump: Professor

Vice President Kamala Harris made the correct decision not using her CNN interview to engage in a war of words with Donald Trump, and instead focused on her own campaign, according to experts.
Stephen K. Medvic, the Honorable and Mrs. John C. Kunkel Professor of Government at Franklin & Marshall College, said Harris made a “smart strategic move” by not spending too much time using the primetime broadcast attacking her 2024 Republican rival.
On Thursday night, Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, appeared for their first televised interview of their 2024 campaign, in a pre-recorded conversion with CNN’S Dana Bash.
One of the standout moments of the interview was Harris refusing to fully respond when asked about Trump’s personal attacks against the vice president, who is of both Indian and Jamaican heritage, including suggesting she “happened to turn Black” in recent years for political gain.
“Same old, tired playbook. Next question, please,” Harris told Bash.
Harris sparsely mentioned Trump during the rest of the interview. While praising President Joe Biden’s handling of the economy, Harris said he had to take action because Trump’s “mismanagement” of the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in the economy crashing.
Harris added that Trump “killed” a bipartisan border security bill by convincing Republicans not to back it. Harris also said that Trump said “he was going to do a number of things” while in office which he never went on to achieve, such as including allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices.
“Never happened. We did it,” Harris said.
Reacting to the CNN interview, Medvic told Newsweek: “She didn’t spend much time criticizing or attacking Donald Trump. She drew some contrasts here and there, but moved on pretty quickly.
“At least in this interview, she wanted to establish a positive case for her candidacy and not rely on an anti-Trump rationale. That was a smart strategic move.”
Samantha Pettey, associate professor of political science at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, said Harris refusing to be drawn into Trump’s questioning of her identity as a Black woman was the moment that “stood out” in the CNN interview.
“Harris, like many women candidates, but especially women of color, deal with comments in someway relating to their race and gender regularly,” Pettey told Newsweek. “Harris though, did not indulge the question and instead has a perhaps ‘memeable’ moment.
“Getting back to the issues and policies is an effective strategy in this case that many women politicians use to emphasize that regardless of their gender, or race, they are a qualified candidate for office and that’s where they want to spend their time.”
Susan McWilliams Barndt, professor of politics at Pomona College in California, added a lot of politics is “showing, not telling” and that Harris didn’t want to talk about Trump in order to outline the differences between the pair and how “ready she is” for the presidency.
“The underlying message Harris and Walz were trying to get across is: We are the grownups in the room. We are the grownups in this election,” Barndt told Newsweek.
In a series of posts on Truth Social after the CNN interview aired, Trump once again attacked Harris while mentioning the upcoming September 10 presidential debate between the pair.
“I look so forward to Debating Comrade Comrade Kamala Harris and exposing her for the fraud she is,” Trump wrote.
“Harris has changed every one of her long held positions, on everything. America will never allow an Election WEAPONIZING MARXIST TO BE PRESIDENT OF THE U.S.”