(Headline USA) The former Los Angeles bureau chief for the New York Times admitted this week that Vice President Kamala Harris’s refusal to give straight answers about her policy positions could cost her the election.
In a guest essay for the Times, Todd Purdum urged Harris to be more direct with the press and with voters, and to stop with the circular word-salads.
“Writing about politicians for decades has convinced me that direct, succinct answers and explanations from Ms. Harris would go a long way—perhaps longer than she realizes—toward persuading voters that they know enough about her and her plans,” he wrote.
Purdum cited Harris’s sit-down last week with a local ABC affiliate, during which the anchor asked her to outline “one or two specific things” she would do to “[bring] down prices and [make] life more affordable for people.”
After “nearly two minutes,” Harris made a half-hearted attempt to “outline her plan,” Purdum added.
“In a campaign in which Donald Trump fills our days with arrant nonsense and dominates the national discussion… the vice president can’t afford to stick only to rehearsed answers and stump speeches that might not persuade voters or shape what America is talking about,” he said.
Recent polls prove “millions of Americans still have questions for [Harris] and want to see her fighting for the job,” Purdum continued.
Instead, Harris is refusing to “define herself and her priorities” and “ceding precious oxygen to Mr. Trump’s distractions.”
Purdum also claimed Harris shouldn’t be afraid to lean into her policy flip-flops.
“I’m not sure she should be so worried,” he said. “She’s had nearly four years in office in which her theoretical thinking—on topics from fracking, to gun control, to ‘Medicare for all’—has evolved in practice. One person’s flip-flop is another’s proof of a stateswoman’s maturation. Why not own it?”
Harris herself has insisted that although her stated positions on controversial topics may have changed since her overwhelming defeat in the 2019 Democratic primary, her radical values have not.
Harris’s campaign has come under heavy criticism for dodging questions about the vice president’s agenda.
Since Harris launched her campaign, she and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, have combined sat for only 14 interviews. Former President Donald Trump and Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, have conducted 55 in that same time period.
