Vice President Kamala Harris, the applauded Democratic nominee for president, took on, without hesitation, Trump-loving Fox News and came away a winner in the minds of level-headed members of both parties.
Harris, under pressure to broaden her appeal to Republicans and conservatives with Election Day fast approaching, sat for a contentious interview with Fox News whereshe said more bluntly than before that her presidency would not be a continuation of Joe Biden’s,” reports The Washington Post.
The interview with Fox chief political anchor Bret Baier, which also featured a testy back-and-forth on immigration, represented a calculated gamble for Harris, given Fox’s role as a conservative-leaning network that is one of the top news sources for Republicans. It offered her a chance to refashion a recent comment on ABC’s “The View” that she could not think of anything she would do differently from Biden, a remark that even many Democrats strategists viewed as a misstep.
“Let me be very clear — my presidency will not be a continuation of Joe Biden’s presidency, and like every new president that comes in to office, I will bring my life experiences, my professional experiences, and fresh and new ideas,” Harris said. “I represent a new generation of leadership.”
The interview represented an extraordinary moment in an already-turbulent campaign, as a Democratic nominee who has been criticized for avoiding unscripted moments sat down with a network that has made its name with sometimes-fiery hosts who often attack Democrats and embrace conservative causes.
Earlier on Wednesday, Harris appeared with more than 100 Republicans who have endorsed her campaign at an event in Bucks County, Pa., where she argued that Trump is not worthy of the support of Republicans who care about democracy. Noting that the former president at one point suggested terminating the Constitution as he falsely insisted he was the winner of the 2020 election, Harris argued that a person who makes that threat should never stand behind the presidential seal.
“If you share that view, no matter your party, no matter who you voted for last time, there is a place for you in this campaign,” Harris said. “The coalition we have built has room for everyone who is ready to turn the page on the chaos and instability of Donald Trump. And I pledge to you to be a president for all Americans.”
She was joined onstage at the “Country Over Party” event by an array of Republican leaders including former New Jersey governor Christine Todd Whitman, former Georgia lieutenant governor Geoff Duncan and former members of Congress such as Barbara Comstock of Virginia, James C. Greenwood of Pennsylvania, Mickey Edwards of Oklahoma, Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, Denver Riggleman of Virginia, Christopher Shays of Connecticut and Dave Trott of Michigan.
Looking at the Republicans with her onstage and in the audience, she laughed and noted that in any normal election, it would be strange for them to be with her at a campaign event, “but not in this election.”
Over the past few months, the Harris campaign has been reaching out to voters who supported former Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley. In an effort to signal that Harris merits Republicans’ votes, her aides have also highlighted her support from prominent Republicans including former congresswoman Liz Cheney of Wyoming, who urged Americans during a recent appearance with Harris to reject the “depraved cruelty” of Trump.
Kinzinger, who like Cheney was a member of the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, spoke before Harris at the Bucks County event Wednesday.
He called Trump a “whiny, weak, small, tiny man who is scared to death.”
Harris’ showed a candidate lwilling to face a hostile interviewer and hold her own, unlike Trump, who cancels appearances with 60 minutes and even an offered debater with Harris hosted by Fox.
In a normal election, Trump should be drowning in his swamp of self-piry, criminal behavior and lies. But normality left the election process too long ago and we have a close race between Harris and her laudable attempts to put the nation’s diverse interests at cooperating for America’s needs and not the demented hate of Trump and his MAGA Maggots.
Can voters, as they did in 2020, save democracy and the America? Lets hope so.
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