Kamala’s interview was a masterclass in dodging traps set by Trump

https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/kamala-harris-trump-walz-election-b2604407.html

40 comments

  1. I’m sorry was it Trump conducting this interview or Dana Bash?

  3. I agree with the headline. Trump’s campaign kept beating the drum about how important an interview would be AND that she’d bomb which is why she wouldn’t do one. WRONG!

    “At the moment, it’s Trump who needs to change the trajectory of his race, given the remarkable turnaround of Dem fortunes since Biden pulled out. And if all you can say is “BORING!!!” then you have cause for concern.”

  4. Call me crazy, but I didn’t see anything wrong with the way CNN conducted the interview and the questions asked. The media’s job is to bring truth to power. Asking adversarial questions is literally what they are supposed to do. Maybe this is an American thing where media outlets coddle their interviewee if they agree politically and treat them like they’re special, but this is not how things are done abroad.

    For example, go look up the BBC video of Andrew Neil interviewing Ben Shapiro. These are both hard right figures, but Andrew Neil posed adversarial questions to Ben Shapiro and Shapiro accused Neil of being a leftist before whining and storming off.

    I would expect a media outlet to ask adversarial questions of a presidential candidate during an election year… and Kamala did a good job whereas Trump would have complained about how unfairly he was treated.

    Edit: an addendum… CNN asked questions framed by the talking points of hard right people, and Kamala answered them quite effectively. If anything, this showed she will do well in that debate.

  5. It was a good interview… but honestly Trump’s “traps” are tired old and played out. The guy is a joke. Oh the guy questioned her race as a way of working up his base… where have we heard that before? Oh right, Trump from like a decade ago. “She’s a flip flopper!!!”… you mean she adjusted her policies over time? Yeah that shit happens…. Trump’s party affiliation was Democrat before he realized the GOP favored billionaires FFS

  7. I’m watching the interview on YouTube and the comments are constantly ragging on things that… aren’t happening in the video. Like one about her constantly checking notes and another about her never looking people’s in the eyes. Both demonstrably false if you HAVE EYES. Either bots or truly obsessed Trump zealots. It’s pretty surreal.

  8. lol…masterclass. lol.

    Trump’s playing Go Fish out there. Harris can miss the bus for a week and still easily maneuver around or through whatever counts as a trap left by Trump.

  9. Bash asked her about her identity. Kamala did a master class of brushing that off and showing it’s the same old tactics by deranged Trump. Saying “Next question” was a brilliant move.

  10. wtf is this title, makes it seem like Trump interviewed her…

  11. You can really tell this is a British publication. I just learned what a “Reverse Ferret” is. Good article, this was just an interesting point

  12. Why the fuck was a supposed journalist on CNN using Trump’s material? Does Dana Bash have **any** professional ethics?

  13. The fact that there hasn’t been a sound byte or video byte shows how she managed to avoid falling into the MAGA talking points

  14. Harris is running an intelligent, competent, extremely effective campaign. It will be studied and copied for decades to come. I will be proudly and enthusiastically voting for the Harris/Walz ticket in Nov; damn this makes me so happy.

    >But one thing she didn’t do – and this will have caused even greater disappointment at Trump Central – was take the bait on Trump’s race-baiting. When asked to comment on his offensive remarks about her only recently deciding she was black, she paused and said: “Same old playbook. Next question.” That was it. She wasn’t going there. Harris is determined to eschew identity politics. She is not running as a black woman. She is running as Kamala Harris. And that marks a shift from Hillary Clinton’s unsuccessful campaign, who made breaking the glass ceiling such an important part of her stump speeches. Trump would love to depict Harris as some rabid culture warrior. He probably will regardless. But she is not going to supply the ammo.

  15. Shrewd. Doesn’t oppose fracking anymore. Takes away the talking point.

    Doesn’t need to. The fracking boom has peaked and will tail off on its own.

  16. Side note: Am I the only person to notice the phrase “master class” showing up significantly more often in the last couple months? I can’t tell if I’m going nuts or if there was some meme that spread it around and it just stuck.

  17. I love the picture above.

    This is just a preview of what will happen during the debate. Harris will sound like an actual would-be President.

    Trump? He’ll ramble on and complain/whine/bitch/point fingers until his time is up and more.

  18. “Same old playbook, next question.” I was like dam! She knows how to do the job

  19. They should do the exact same interview and questions with Trump and Vance. I would love to see those two videos side by side.

  20. They are so fucking obnoxious to demand an interview and then do this dumb shit.

  21. Anyone else totally not shocked that this was a pretty boring, run-of-the-mill interview, where the two seasoned politicians handled the obvious trap questions with ease?

    And this is coming from someone who is most enthusiastic to vote for Harris/Walz than I have been in over a decade of politics.

    I mean., so weird how this one interview was hyped up as “the next big test”.

  22. Trump didn’t set any traps. This is the large news media trying to make Kamala look bad. The news media oligarchs are scared of her and her administration.

  23. CNN really going all out for Trump these days… the guy who trashes them more than anyone in the world

  25. The interview being boring is all i hoped to hear. Please, let politics become boring again. More policy, less culture wars.

  26. The problem with the news now is it is after controversy for clicks, not actually delving into policy. [If you read the transcript](https://www.cnn.com/2024/08/29/politics/harris-walz-interview-read-transcript/index.html), the questions are generated to get gotcha moments and they are purely from what the Trump campaign has pushed as news.

    Look at some of these questions:

    > The steps that you’re talking about now, why haven’t you done them already? (on the economy)

    Failing to point out that it is a split congress

    > So you maintain Bidenomics is a success.

    This – just to get the clip of saying ‘yes’

    > And was there some policy or scientific data that you saw that you said, “Oh, okay. I get it now”?

    This is the 4th question in a row she asked why Harris changed her mind about Fracking. It’s repetitive. Not something most Americans care about.

    Bash again does the same thing about Immigration 4 questions in a row – but it is an important national policy and makes more sense here.

    We can go on here – but there is no questions about Ukraine, no real questions on Supreme Court rulings, no questions on any policy matter other than what Republicans have deemed important – Economy, Immigrations, fracking, and Israel war.

  27. I just saw this clip on CNN’s official TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8J1jDRu/

    While I’m totally fine with holding politicians accountable and pressing them on flip flopping. But if you look at the full answer to the question (and not just the short snippet they included in the video) it is a totally on-brand and coherent answer.

    We can strive towards cleaner energy without outright banning fossil fuels.

    But that doesn’t make engaging content, so of course CNN has to make her look noncommittal and dumb. And clearly it works looking at the reactions to that video.

  28. The interview was on cnn and trump was setting traps?? 🙄🤦‍♂️

  30. There’s no one tougher or smarter than Kamala Harris that can beat Donald Trump.

  31. It’s was an interview where she had support from her vice and wasn’t live. Of course it went great.

  32. Why didn’t CNN put out the full 18 minutes interview?

  33. I like boring interviews. America is tired of salacious media and scandal surrounding the White House; much of Earth would agree.

  35. It was a master class of saying things without saying anything

  36. Honestly the Trump campaign is like Wile E. Coyote with ridiculous ACME traps he sets for the Road Runner. It ends with a piece of cliff falling on his head.

  37. If you read In conservative or on Facebook, it’s the worst interview in existence and Kamala makes no sense and this interview showcases why we need Trump. So by that alone you can already tell they didn’t even watch it. 

  38. When are Trump and Vance going to do an interview together?

  40. *”My values haven’t changed.”*

    She just values defense contractors and the oil and gas industry as much as the GOP.

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