Prior to CNN’s Thursday interview with the Democratic ticket of Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, we suggested 30 questions that Dana Bash might ask the duo in their much-hyped first interview. But when it came time to sit down to talk in Savannah, Bash only asked five of them.
Bash did manage to ask Harris about her fracking flip-flop, “Do you still want to ban fracking?... In 2019, I believe in a town hall, you said -- you were asked, would you commit to implementing a federal ban on fracking on your first day in office? And you said: There's no question I'm in favor of banning fracking. So, yes. So, it changed in the -- in that campaign?”
Here's the full Dana Bash-Kamala Harris exchange on fracking.....
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) August 30, 2024
Dana Bash: "[I]n 2019 you said, 'there's no question. I'm in favor of banning fracking'. Fracking, as you know, is a pretty big issue, particularly in your must-win state of Pennsylvania do you still want to ban… pic.twitter.com/JrSigUZduH
Likewise, Bash recalled Harris’s 2019 border stance, “There was a debate. You raised your hand when asked whether or not the border should be decriminalized. Do you still believe that?”
On President Biden, Bash asked in the gentlest way possible, “Given where we are now, do you have any regrets about what you told the American people?”
Vice President Kamala Harris says she has zero regrets about defending Joe Biden's fitness for office, arguing he maintains "the judgment and disposition" to serve....
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) August 30, 2024
CNN's Dana Bash: "[Y]ou were a very staunch defender of President Biden's capacity to serve another four years.… pic.twitter.com/JX7t5XVzlA
To Walz, Bash recalled, “You said that you carried weapons in war, but you have never deployed actually in a war zone. A campaign official said that you misspoke. Did you?”
Walz ducks addressing stolen valor, pivots to abortion pic.twitter.com/Qbiyso4VKP
— Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) August 30, 2024
She also questioned him on the fact that, “You had to clarify that you had said that you and your wife used IVF, but it turned out you used a different kind of fertility in order to have children. And then when you ran for Congress in 2006, your campaign repeatedly made false statements about a 1995 arrest for drunk and reckless driving. What do you say to voters who aren't sure whether they can take you at your word?"
That was the good, but the bad was more glaring. The president’s most important role is that of commander-in-chief and keeping the country safe. The words “China,” "Russia,” and “Iran” did not appear once. The only foreign policy question was from the left: “Would you withhold some U.S. weapons shipments to Israel? That's what a lot of people on the progressive left want you to do.”
On the economy, Bash declined to press Harris on her radical price control plan or how she could address the debt while not cutting spending or if she and Biden overspent, causing inflation.
Likewise, when Walz hyped the ticket’s stance on abortion, Bash refused to question him on his radical record as governor of Minnesota and Harris on if she supports any limits. Nor did she ask about Title IX and the issue of transgender individuals competing in women’s sports.
Bash further declined to press Harris on what she would do when Democratic interest groups collide with each other. She did not mention union concerns about electric vehicles. While she mentioned far-left concerns about Gaza, she did not mention potential Title VI violations during anti-Israel demonstrations on college campuses.
She did not ask Harris if she still thinks America is a systemically racist country or favors Supreme Court expansion.
Walz escaped questions about comments made by his former National Guard superior on CNN, no less, that he went around him in order to retire prior to his unit’s deployment to Iraq, his history of saying nice things about Communist China, and his associations with a pro-Hamas, pro-Hitler imam.
Instead, Bash led Harris with softballs such as Trump “suggested that you happened to turn black recently for political purposes, questioning a core part of your identity,” “What are you learning in a place like Georgia?,” and food.
Tim Walz getting asked about spices is the new chocolate-chocolate chip pic.twitter.com/mUep7ckDDE
— Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) August 30, 2024
Another easy question to Harris was, “One of your grandnieces that you were just talking about was watching you accept the nomination. You didn't explicitly talk about gender or race in your speech. But it obviously means a lot to a lot of people. And that viral picture really says it. What does it mean to you?"
Meanwhile, CNN asks Walz’s GOP counterpart, JD Vance, if he was making light of suicide by posting a nearly 20-year-old video clip of a Miss Teen USA beauty pageant.
