Does a joint interview really count as an interview for Kamala Harris ...

August 29 – Democrat nominee for president Kamala Harris and the vice president pick Tim Walz will sit down tonight with CNN’s Dana Bash for the first interview of the campaign. 

It is a pre-taped interview. 

A number of people are wondering why it took so long and why there are two people taking part in the interview? 

Pat Ryan of NewsTalk 103.7FM pointed out, “You can hear the Democrats already. See, see, see? She sat down, she did an interview. It’s a pre-taped sit down. She can’t do it alone. It can’t be live, and you can’t go to actual media. Look, your inflation is up. Your insurance is up. The Middle East nightmare, the southern border. But look, we did an interview.”

Attorney Clint Barkdoll said, “The interview is going to be at roughly two o’clock this afternoon in Savannah, Georgia. That’s where Harris and Walz are on this bus tour. The interview will not air until nine o’clock tonight. Will CNN, at some point drop the unedited version of the entire sit down? I see there’s some media reporting that they may do that, and I don’t know if that would be online or how they would do that, but that’s one piece of this to watch. I do think it’s going to get big ratings. I also think it’s very deliberate that they chose Dana Bash, and the reason why is that Trump has done nothing but praise Dana Bash and Jake Tapper when they moderated that debate in June. Remember going into the debate, it was Jake, the fake, and liberal Dana and then Trump has just repeatedly, I saw, even as recently as last week before this interview was announced, talked about how great they were, how fair they were, how tough they were. I have a feeling that played into the Harris decision. They figured by choosing her, Trump could now turn around and now start criticizing the interviewer. I think Bash is going to have to play this straight. She cannot have any perception that she’s doing something to favor Harris. She can be very tough. Will that be the version that you see tonight?”

Ultimately, how will Harris perform? 

Barkdoll suggested, “I think the other piece of this to watch, there’s a lot of reporting that Harris is just not very good on her feet and off the cuff. There’s certain issues in particular a lot of the pundits say, if you look at her historically, she just doesn’t have great answers for things. Now, obviously, Walz is going to be there. We don’t really know how he performs in the settings, because as the governor of Minnesota, he’s not used to these kinds of high profile interviews. We don’t know what his knowledge is on a lot of these national issues. I still don’t think she can just get away with doing this and then say, okay, well, now I’ve done it. I’ll see you in November at the election. I still think she’s going to have to do some one on one interviews over the next few weeks, so we’ll see. It’s going to be very interesting to watch tonight.”

Michele Jansen of NewsTalk 103.7FM noted, “Well, with no primary that she was involved in, with nobody learning anything about her, with zero written on her campaign site, at least last time I checked, I don’t know how they with a straight face don’t have her go out and give more. But apparently we’re happy with La La Land. Let’s live in the virtual basement. As somebody said, she’s in the Meta basement now, compared to the COVID basement of Biden and they think that’s enough to win, if the polls are good, that’s all we’re going to do. The American people should demand more. I’m just, I’m stunned and appalled by those who are just happy to let her be this puppet narrative that we see getting good numbers.”

Ryan added, “You’re doing it in the country and you’re doing it with your grandkids.” 

Barkdoll said, “Here’s the other thing to that – this debate is coming up in about 10 or so days. I think these interviews would be good for her. She needs to be used to someone asking her tough questions, having to think on her feet. She’s getting no preparation at all. I mean, yes, she’s going to do this today, but it’s going to be with Walz, and that’s not the same as one on one, because you can already envision moments in this interview if she’s caught off guard or doesn’t have an answer, well, Walz is going to be able to step in and maybe pick up the slack. So it’s very different from just a one on one interview. No doubt Dana Bash is going to confront her about all of these flip flop issues that we’ve been talking about the last few weeks, and I’m curious what she says. She has to know that these questions are coming.”