Might As Well Face It, the Press Is Addicted to Trump

Vice-President Kamala Harris was the Democratic presidential candidate for about 30 seconds before the nation’s political media started falling on its keys covering her campaign. 

Editors and producers amplified Republican complaints about her supposed lack of foreign policy experience, her racial and ethnic heritage, her gender, and … her laugh. CNN reports: 

[Former President Donald] Trump, trying out new material to mock Harris, has dubbed his opponent as “Laffin’ Kamala.”

“She’s crazy. She’s nuts,” he said at a recent rally in Michigan, implying there is something maniacal about her laugh.

It’s a trivial example, but a telling one: Everything Republicans said about her was taken at face value and instantly framed as a risk, a liability. Washington Post columnist Kathleen Parker took aim at Harris’s intelligence by writing, “Without her beauty, Harris might be joining Biden in retirement,” implying she’s only politically successful because she’s hot. 

The New York Times reported that Trump called Harris “nasty” on Fox & Friends, and, on more than a few occasions, referred to her as a “bitch” in private conversations.

And let’s not forget Trump’s disastrous interview with the National Association of Black Journalists, when he commented that Harris had emphasized her Indian-American heritage and “then all of a sudden she made a turn and she became a Black person.” The Washington Post repeated the lie in a headline, and went even further, calling it a “pivotal moment”:

For Vice-President Harris’s supporters, Donald Trump’s lashing criticisms of her racial identity on Wednesday came with blinding speed but little surprise: A week after entering the race, the first Black and Indian American woman to top a party’s presidential ticket is contending with Trump’s assertion that she leaned into being Black for political expediency.

According to the Post, Trump’s nonsense—Harris has never hidden or downplayed her Black identity—isn’t something that reflects on him. It’s something Harris with which must contend, a liability she has to address, with all the weight placed on her to rebut the obvious untruth after the Post has helped the GOP shout it from the rooftops. 

Rather than being a disgusting, racist lie that should disqualify Trump as a legitimate candidate, it merely “moves contest into new phase.” 

In that phase, VP Harris must answer for every charge the GOP wields at her, because their fictions are being validated by the paper, and presented to readers as gospel. When Trump posts on his Truth Social account, producers and editors scramble to repeat what he says, turning the ramblings of a convicted criminal and con man into proclamations of fact: 

Trump posted: 

The first Debate with Kamala Harris, for President of the United States of America, will be with FoxNews on September 4th, 2024, LIVE from beautiful Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The second Debate will take place on Fake News ABC, home of George Slopadopoulos, to be anchored by David Muir, on September 10th, 2024, at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The third Debate will take place on NBC, in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on September 25th, 2024, to be anchored by Lester Holt – Details to follow. I look forward to seeing Kamala at all three Debates! 

The Fox affiliate in Minneapolis repeated: Donald Trump says he’s agreed to 3 debates. 

CBS reported the news that “in the post, former President Trump said the purported Fox News debate would be on Sept. 4.” 

CNN, PBS, The Hill, and outlets across the country that picked up the Associated Press story all gave credence to Trump’s plans. 

Never mind that no debates beyond the one scheduled for Sept. 10 have been officially green-lit, and that “agreeing” to something no one has offered you carries about as much weight as me “agreeing” to move into an Italian villa with Harrison Ford. Trump’s assertion was something Kamala Harris needed to be questioned about right away! 

And even when Harris is quoted directly in news coverage, her agency is immediately taken away and given to Trump and his surrogates. Her actions are all filtered through the lens of “How does Trump see this?” As when she began using “We’re Not Going Back” as a rallying cry. The Times headline? “To Team Trump, Harris’s ‘Not Going Back’ Promise Will Prove a Big Mistake.”

Former President Donald J. Trump’s top advisers believe that tagline is a mistake. Their theory of the case, with less than 90 days to go in the election, is that the American people are nostalgic for the Trump presidency — and, specifically, for the Trump economy and lower prices.

What the media fails to mention is the meat of the story, that “going back” refers to Team Trump’s determination to push LGBTQ+ Americans back into the closet, implement a national abortion ban, and further roll back voting rights for Black and brown people.

There are fewer than three months until what is likely the most consequential presidential election in our nation’s recent history. The process has already been upended by President Biden’s decision to withdraw from the race, and those tasked with informing the public have less time than usual to educate people about Harris’s policy proposals, ideas on American democracy, and solutions for crises both foreign and domestic. 

They should be looking at her record as a U.S. senator and sitting vice-president, speaking to those helped or hurt by her work, assessing the impact of her past roles as predictive of her presidency. 

Instead we’re getting whiny crabbing about how little Harris talks to the D.C. media, as if that’s the main function of her job. As if she owes them a show. 

In the nearly three weeks since President Biden withdrew his candidacy, catapulting Ms. Harris to the top of the Democratic ticket, the vice president has shown little eagerness to meet journalists in unscripted settings. She has not granted an interview or held a news conference. On Thursday, after a rally in Michigan, she held her first “gaggle” —an impromptu Q&A session—with reporters covering her campaign.

It lasted 70 seconds.

Ms. Harris replaced a Democratic nominee who has hosted fewer White House news conferences than any president since Ronald Reagan. Now she is taking a similarly cautious approach, relying on televised rallies and prepared statements amid a tightly controlled rollout of her candidacy.

When Harris does consent to reporters’ questions, they ask her to respond to Trump’s statements, to characterize his demeanor, and to defend herself against the lies and offensive statements he’s made about her.

 

And we’re getting pearl-clutching think pieces about people using naughty words at her campaign rallies: 

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro riled up the crowd by summarizing his governing philosophy: “Get shit done!” That motto was echoed verbatim the following day by Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer during a Harris rally that included audience chants of “Hell yeah,” a reference to Harris as a “badass woman” and at least one f-bomb from the stage.

Meanwhile, Trump’s rallies for the past eight years have top-lined genocidal threats against women, liberals, Mexican immigrants, journalists, Ukrainians, and anyone who refused to help Trump steal the 2020 election or won’t promise to help him steal 2024’s. 

The painful thing about all of this terrible coverage is the size of this missed opportunity. VP Kamala Harris’s candidacy is historic, and voters really do need to find out about her goals and aspirations. 

But between repeating Trump’s nonsensical attacks, making fun of her laugh, gasping over adult language, and complaining about how the VP won’t talk to them, the corporate press is blowing coverage of Harris just as badly as they savaged Hillary Clinton’s 2016 White House run.

A reporter or editor who truly cared about informing the public would be trying to change the way the race was covered, not repeating the same tired pattern every four years. 

As things stand, it’s no wonder VP Harris has little interest in talking to people who have no interest in what she wants to say about the future of our country.