(Headline USA) Kamala Harris wanted to help voters get to know her better with a cascade of media appearances on Tuesday, but the most lasting impression might have been her unwillingness to break with Joe Biden.
Asked on ABC’s “The View” how she would be different from the president she’s served under for four years, Harris said “we’re obviously two different people” and “I will bring those sensibilities to how I lead.”
However, she was not able to identify a decision where she would have gone another way. “There is not a thing that comes to mind,” Harris said.
"If anything, would you have done something differently than President Biden during the past four years?"
KAMALA: "There is not a thing that comes to mind."
🚨🚨🚨 pic.twitter.com/kvS3zkMc4p
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) October 8, 2024
Some Harris aides privately winced as clips of her response circulated and Donald Trump swiped at her in a social media post, calling it “her dumbest answer so far.”
It wasn’t until later in the show that Harris named something that she would do differently than Biden—she would put a Republican in her Cabinet.
The Democratic nominee said she would welcome contributions from the other party “because I don’t feel burdened by letting pride get in the way of a good idea.”
Even though her abbreviated and unexpected campaign for the presidency is more than half over, Harris is still attempting to introduce herself to voters.
After “The View,” she spoke to radio host Howard Stern and planned to tape a show with late-night comedian Stephen Colbert.
The trio of appearances came after Harris granted interviews to CBS’ “60 Minutes,” which aired Monday night, and Alex Cooper’s podcast “Call Her Daddy,” which was released Sunday.
Harris’ decision to open up is a sharp shift after largely avoiding interviews since replacing Biden at the top of the ticket.
By the time she was finished with the interview, listeners learned irrelevant information about the presidential candidate. Some examples:
She ate a family sized bag of Doritos after Trump beat Hillary Clinton. She works out on an elliptical every day. Her first job was cleaning test tubes at her mother’s laboratory, and she got fired. Her favorite Formula One driver is Lewis Hamilton. She went to see U2 at the Sphere in Las Vegas, and she recommends going with a “clear head,” meaning not high on drugs, because “there’s a lot of visual stimulation.”
Republican communications strategist Kevin Madden said defining Harris in voters’ eyes is a challenge of the campaign.
“This race is actually pretty simple in the sense that the next few weeks are about who’s going to fill in the blanks on who Harris is,” he said.
Harris’ name recognition grew when she became vice president, but 1 out of 10 people still said they didn’t know enough about her to have an opinion, according to AP-NORC polling.
Other polls have similar results. One-quarter of likely voters said they still feel like they need to learn more about Harris, according to a New York Times/Siena College poll conducted after her debate against Trump, while about three-quarters say they pretty much already know what they need to know about her.
Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press
