Kamala Harris has been the Democratic Party's presumptive presidential nominee for a little more than two weeks – and for a few days, the official nominee. In that time, she has given no press conferences, planned or unplanned. From the Harris-Walz campaign’s perspective, that’s probably not a bad thing, considering her inability to deliver unscripted remarks that make sense. However, she cannot simply run out the clock – not for a whole three months. No matter how many campaign events she speaks at, the current vice president will not stave off the media for much longer.
What, then, is the Harris campaign strategy? How will her team get her through to Election Day without any more word salads – or at least with as few as possible?
The Kamala Harris Word Salad Problem
Life would be a lot easier for Harris' campaign manager if she were a woman of few words. That is most certainly not the case, however. The VP loves to talk. In fact, she appears to have an irresistible tendency to use as many words as possible to express even the simplest of concepts. Unfortunately for those hoping to propel her to the Oval Office, Kamala Harris seems to have some difficulty understanding the ideas and issues she discusses. The lack of comprehension leads her to repeat certain words and phrases. What she is really doing is stalling – some might be tempted to use the word “waffling” – while she attempts to figure out how to express herself effectively. When she cannot, she tends to fall back on her defense mechanism, an odd and sometimes inappropriate burst of cackling laughter. Take, for example, a 2022 interview during which Harris provided her take on the war in Ukraine:
“So, Ukraine is a country in Europe. It exists next to another country called Russia. Russia is a bigger country. Russia is a powerful country. Russia decided to invade a smaller country called Ukraine. So, basically that's wrong.”
This is just one of many occasions on which the White House hopeful used several words to say absolutely nothing insightful, useful, rational, or informative. It’s the kind of embarrassing situation her people are working hard to avoid.
The Harris campaign has several options for damage control, the most obvious of which is to follow the lead of current White House staff. To protect Joe Biden from awkward gaffes – and they are not always successful in doing so – the president's people ensure that he doesn't take reporters’ questions unless the inquiries have already been approved. The American people should expect to see a few carefully stage-managed Kamala Harris press conferences between now and the November election. Establishment media outlets will probably be only too happy to play along.
Now that she's picked her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, it is likely he will act as Harris' main surrogate. Walz is already busy making himself visible, launching attacks on Harris' 2024 opponent, Donald Trump, his running mate JD Vance, and Republicans in general. Many of Walz’s verbal slings and arrows have failed to hit their target, however. Most recently, he tried to portray Vance as some kind of elitist who went to Yale – yet Vance grew up in poverty. How effective a surrogate Walz will be is open to question.
When all is said and done, Americans will be casting votes for a president, not for a vice president. The voters want to hear what Trump and Kamala Harris have to say. Anything Walz or Vance says – no matter how important, clever, or insightful – is really just background noise.
Another Basement Campaign?
In 2020, Biden ran what his detractors called a basement campaign. He was allowed to get away with this by mainly using the COVID-19 pandemic as an excuse not to hold large public campaign events – even as Trump was staging massive rallies. Kamala Harris might well take a leaf from her current boss’ book and run what Liberty Nation News' Editor-in-Chief Mark Angelides dubbed a “Rose basement strategy.” It's a play on the “Rose Garden strategy” used in the past – with varying degrees of success – by incumbent presidents seeking re-election.
A debate with Trump could be the main event that trips Harris up. The two presidential candidates have agreed in principle to face off, but there is some disagreement over which outlet might host. Trump is trying to get Fox News because he knows that, even though the network is not exactly staffed by his biggest fans, it is the only major network that will not put its thumb on the scale in Harris' favor. For her part, Harris wants an ABC News–hosted debate. Unless she manages to do what Hillary Clinton did in 2016 – that is, get ahold of the debate questions beforehand – the vice president might find herself in trouble going up against Trump in an unscripted head-to-head.
Without winning a single primary, Kamala Harris is now campaigning for the White House on the back of Biden's record - which many find troubling. And she’s competing against a man who pulls no punches and can speak coherently for hours – prepared speech or not. More significantly, Trump has always shown a genuine willingness to make himself available to reporters at any time and in any place. This, perhaps more than anything else -- even more than the policy agendas, as far as some Americans are concerned – could establish the biggest difference between the candidates, in the eyes of many voters. The vice president will find herself at an enormous disadvantage if she continues to avoid the press for much longer.
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