OPINION:
Next time, they should get a room.
CNN’s lovefest on Thursday with Vice President Kamala Harris and her emotional support human should have come with a parental rating: mature audiences only.
And a warning. CAUTION: No democracy will be depicted in this “interview.”
In case you were concerned, no politicians were injured in the filming of this program. It was pure propaganda.
From the start, CNN lied. At the bottom of the screen, CNN claimed throughout the 9 p.m. Eastern time airing that the interview was “live.” It was not. The whole thing was recorded before it aired, which is why you saw clips of the interview run across cable news as early as 8 p.m. Eastern.
These people lie so shamelessly that they do not even bother to try covering up their lies anymore.
But the propaganda production accomplished everything the Harris campaign wanted to accomplish.
First, Ms. Harris finally submitted to an “interview” — though it was not live, it was conducted by a devoted campaign booster and she brought along her security blanket.
Serious question: Will Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz stand beside her for her debate with former President Donald Trump?
Second, Ms. Harris can now claim — disingenuously — that she has answered questions about her horrifying record in office, her long history of dangerously liberal positions and her sudden reversal on a host of highly unpopular past positions and policies just before the biggest election of her political career.
Of course, she did not actually answer any of them. But she can say she did since she was superficially asked some questions, even though she responded with words that failed to explain anything.
Do you want to ban fracking? No.
When you last ran for president, you said there is “no question” you would ban fracking “on your first day in office.”
I changed my mind after I said that and have never changed it back and will not change my mind again.
“I kept my word and I will keep my word,” Ms. Harris told Dana Bash, who for some reason did not burst out laughing.
Which brings us to the third thing the Harris campaign accomplished: No harm was done.
That’s because CNN rigged the whole interview to be softball questions and only the gentlest pushback on the biggest, most obvious whoppers from Ms. Harris and the doughy crybaby she brought with her.
Some of Ms. Bash’s questions were in the form of a multiple-choice quiz, a sure sign a reporter is doing her best to hedge in favor of the interviewee.
After failing to forcefully confront Ms. Harris on her failures on the border and with the economy, Ms. Bash tepidly asked Ms. Harris about her wild election-eve conversions. But she did it with the ultimate kid-glove, multiple-choice treatment.
“Generally speaking, how should voters look at some of the changes that you’ve made — that you explained some of here — in your policy? Is it because you have more experience now and you’ve learned more about the information? Is it because you [were] running for president in a Democratic primary? And should they feel comfortable and confident that what you’re saying now is gonna be your policy moving forward?”
If there was a “gotcha” question buried in all that backpedaling and apologizing, it was encased in so much Bubble Wrap that it was easily conquered by even the most wilted word salad.
When Ms. Bash quizzed Mr. Walz on his myriad lies about his military service and his wife’s fertility treatments (these people will literally lie about anything to win an election), she apologized even before asking the basic question.
“And just one other question,” Ms. Bash groveled. “Because, again, this is all new.”
She apologized even further that Ms. Harris and her sidekick crybaby had not had more time to prepare answers for their cavalcade of lies from their political careers since the whole campaign come on so suddenly for the both of them.
“This was not on either of your bingo cards, especially yours,” she groveled to Mr. Walz, who still looked like his giant face was about to burst into tears.
One of his bigger lies — the one where he claimed to have fought in combat — he blamed on incorrect grammar. (No pushback from Ms. Bash.)
Most troubling, however, were the new lies.
Ms. Harris said she is “very proud of the work we have done that has brought inflation down to less than 3%.” She and President Biden drove inflation up to 9%, and it is still higher now than when Mr. Trump left the White House over 3½ years ago, according to her own government figures. (Again, no pushback.)
Perhaps her most dangerous lies are her sudden claims to law and order.
“In this race, I’m the only person who has prosecuted transnational criminal organizations who traffic in guns, drugs and human beings,” she asserted — after four years of her open border policies that flooded millions of illegals into the country.
Mr. Trump’s administration did more than any administration in modern history to go after the criminal gangs smuggling drugs and humans — including children — across our southern border.
Ms. Harris and Mr. Biden intentionally reversed all of those policies and handed complete control of the border over to the “transnational criminal organizations” Ms. Harris now claims she prosecuted.
Ms. Bash, of course, said not a word.
• Charles Hurt is the opinion editor at The Washington Times.
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