Kamala Harris’ completed another descending spin around her doom loop on Wednesday night: Lagging Trump in battleground states and therefore under pressure to increase her interactions with voters, she participated in a prime-time town hall that only further exposed her as one of the most superficial politicians of our time…with more poll damage sure to follow.
The town hall was hosted by CNN and took place in Delaware County. Along with Chester, Bucks and Montgomery, it’s one of four Philadelphia “collar counties” that have traditionally played an outsize role in determining who wins Pennsylvania’s electoral votes.
You know things went bad when even the New York Times raked Harris over the coals for being evasive, saying: “Voters asked direct question. Harris gave circular answers.” After the event, CNN’s Dana Bash said, “What I’m hearing from people who I’ve been talking to … if her goal was to close the deal, they’re not sure she did that.” Seasoned Democratic operative David Alexrod called out Harris’ signature flaw: “The things that would concern me is when she doesn’t want to answer a question, her habit is to kind of go to Word Salad City.”
Harris’ worst sequence of the night came when host Anderson Cooper called out her flip-floppy hypocrisy on the issue of border security. Noting that Harris now supports a bill that would allocate $650 million toward a border wall, Cooper said, “Under Donald Trump, you criticized the wall more than 50 times. You called it stupid, useless and a ‘medieval vanity project.’ Is a border wall stupid?”
Watch Harris’ cackling evasion, and note how the audience is silent as she tries to get it to laugh with her…
CNN’s Anderson Cooper grills Kamala Harris for now supporting giving money to build the border wall after she repeatedly attacked Trump for wanting to build a wall
Harris struggles significantly here and now calls the border wall “a good idea” pic.twitter.com/wshe6f4m1a
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) October 24, 2024
More crickets for this cackle:
Kamala Harris tries to stir up a lethargic CNN town hall by saying, “Let’s not be afraid of having a little bit of joy” with all the charisma of Julie Hagerty. pic.twitter.com/h8Iq1DvmbD
— Rev. Ben Johnson (@TheRightsWriter) October 24, 2024
By this point, even Cooper had to wonder why he was even bothering to ask questions, given Harris’ refusal to answer them in any kind of straightforward way:
hey Siri: Why isn’t Kamala performing better with the masses?
Siri: watch this clip from tonight’s CNN town hall pic.twitter.com/iYAgUXz8Yi
— Justin Hart (@justin_hart) October 24, 2024
Some people found Harris’ “answer” to a question about her weaknesses was comically similar to the one given by Michael Scott of The Office:
Kamala Harris or Michael Scott? pic.twitter.com/j8o3kN1yRQ
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) October 24, 2024
After it was all over, CNN’s leftist and conservative panelists united in giving Harris poor marks. Even Van Jones said “the word salad stuff gets on my nerves,” while Dana Bash sounded like a doctor delivering grave news about a patient, and Scott Jennings — far and away the most articulate conservative talking head on network TV — gave her a withering takedown, concluding, “If she were an animal, she’d be a duck-billed platitude”:
NEW: CNN’s Scott Jennings says Kamala Harris is a “double-threat” because she can’t think on her feet and can’t answer the expected questions.
CNN has railed on Harris after her town hall event.
Here are the top reactions:
6. Axelrod: She is word salad city.
5. Jennings:… pic.twitter.com/Mdrr46uzbz
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) October 24, 2024
As a last aside…ahead of the event, CNN said it would feature questions from “undecided and persuadable voters.” Many viewers expressed great doubt that this particular questioner — a female political science professor from ultra-liberal Swarthmore College who’s apparently made dozens of contributions to the Democratic PAC ActBlue — hasn’t decided whom she’s voting for (I mean, just look at those glasses…)
I don’t know how they pulled it off, but for their Harris town hall CNN managed to find a woman+registered Democrat+poli sci professor at Swarthmore undecided voter pic.twitter.com/P7yUWOVqn8
— Aidan McLaughlin (@aidnmclaughlin) October 24, 2024
Carol Nackenoff, American con law political science professor and registered Democrats in Pennsylvania, undecided? pic.twitter.com/vlVaYBQhiF
— Anthony Michael Kreis (@AnthonyMKreis) October 24, 2024
Of course, it was only fitting that, true to Harris’ form all night, even retired professor Nackenoff’s question drew a non-answer:
Carol Nackenoff is a POLITICAL SCIENCE PROFESSOR and is undecided”
Lord help us 🤦♂️#CNNTownHall
pic.twitter.com/izb3NkRiKx https://t.co/f5KSl5lqi3— ًً (@politicalplayer) October 24, 2024