In first interview as presidential candidate, Harris plays normal foil to ‘weird’ Trump

Harris dodges chance to rebuke Trump over racial comment as she seeks ‘do no harm’ outcome

Kamala Harris and Tim Walz emerged from their first post-convention sitdown interview on Thursday virtually without making a shred of news.

Just as planned.

The pair had faced pressure for weeks to sit down with a journalist. Some of the pressure was less than organic – Corey Lewandowski, a senior Trump campaign official, told reporters on a press call Thursday morning that the Democratic standard-bearer and her running mate were “hiding” from the media and had finally “mustered up the stamina” to do an interview.

For days, Republicans have been eagerly accusing their opponents of being unable to answer in-depth questions about their policies – even as Donald Trump publicly ridicules journalists and accused one, ABC’s Rachel Scott, of being “nasty” to him just weeks ago in his last major sitdown interview with mainstream reporters.

Harris herself also set a few expectations, albeit low ones, with her own track record of growing testy with interviewers. In one memorable 2021 example, as vice-president, Harris was peppered by NBC’s Lester Holt and struggled to explain why she hadn’t visited the southern border, given her role in heading up the White House’s efforts to address root causes of migration. In another interview, she angrily rebuked radio host Charlamagne Tha God over a question about Joe Biden’s strength as president.

And of course, she easily cleared those hurdles. She and Walz came off throughout the conversation with CNN’s Dana Bash as warm without any hint of bombast or desire to make a new headline – in one instance, Harris batted away a question on a particularly provocative comment Trump had made about her racial heritage with a ho-hum response: “Same tired old playbook. Next question.”

It was not the response of a presidential candidate who appeared to see a need to make up ground in the race. The answer almost hinted at the aloof dismissiveness – minus the frustration – of Republican senators on Capitol Hill, asked to respond to Trump’s latest outrageous remarks.

Even more, it was reminiscent of Hillary Clinton’s response to a flustered attack launched by rival Lincoln Chafee during the first Democratic primary debate of the 2016 cycle – a smiling Clinton, aware of her status as frontrunner, simply chuckled and said, “No” when asked by a debate moderator if she wanted to respond to her far-trailing opponent.

That was Harris’s big goal tonight: keep the race’s trajectory in her favor. Do no harm. And she achieved it – there was nothing said by Harris or Walz that would still merit coverage by the weekend. Her opponent, meanwhile, continued a multi-state blitz as he spoke in Michigan in the afternoon and Wisconsin in the evening. He and running mate JD Vance have taken on a heavy campaign schedule as polling, donations and volunteer numbers have all trended firmly in Harris’s favor since the day she entered the race last month.

In La Crosse, Wisconsin, Trump was appearing for a town hall event alongside Tulsi Gabbard, a former Democratic congresswoman who endorsed him this week. His campaign has been beset by direct accusations of “weird” views on women in recent weeks from his rivals, centered largely around Vance’s past resurfaced comments about childless women. In general, polls for months have also shown a more longer-term fatigue from some voters who have expressed that they were unenthusiastic about Trump running for a third election cycle.

He was in typical form Thursday evening, declaring onstage with Gabbard sitting next to him that he hadn’t even been informed that she would be taking part in the town hall-style event that evening hosted by his campaign.

Trump quipped: “I figured I was going to come here and we’re going to make a speech. I have a speech all set for you. I was ready. [And they said, you’re] doing a town hall. I said, ‘Oh, nobody told me that.’ I said, ‘Who’s doing this? Tulsi?’ I said, ‘Well, that’s at least good news.’”

Donald Trump appeared alongside Tulsi Gabbard for a town hall event in Wisconsin on Thursday evening (Getty Images)

New polling out this week indicates that Harris’s positively trending poll numbers are headed in the same direction following the four-day Democratic nominating convention in Chicago, where the party’s top brass and even some Republicans rallied for the vice-president.

Harris’s campaign announced last week that it has brought in more than a half-billion dollars in donations in the month since the vice-president took over the top of the Democratic ticket – a staggering amount that contrasts with the paltry-by-comparison $137m haul the Trump campaign reported for July.

With tonight’s interview probably doing little if anything to change the dynamics of the race, Trump’s advisors will most likely be looking ahead to the 10 September debate between Harris and their boss, the first meetup between the two, as the GOP’s next opportunity to flip the momentum back in Trump’s favor.

The June debate between Trump and Joe Biden, the first of its kind to take place before both parties’ nominating conventions, ended up being a mortal blow to Biden’s campaign. The weary-seeming incumbent president appeared lost onstage at times and unable to complete his thoughts during the 90-minute contest, and endured a weeks-long bid by his own party urging him to step down.