During Tuesday’s interview with Kamala Harris at the National Association of Black Journalists, TheGrio White House correspondent Gerren Keith Gaynor lobbed the softest of softballs when he asked Harris what she made of the idea that “Republicans have at times weaponized you laughing in campaign ads.” Later, Gaynor would join MSNBC’s The ReidOut and admit he did it to boost the Harris campaign.
Gaynor also asked, “Why is joy important to you to insert into this election, and what do you make of Republicans using that as a way to suggest you're not a series candidate?"
With that all as background, host Joy Reid inquired, “Gerren, why did you ask that question?”
Gaynor responded that, “it was important for me to ask that question because one, I noticed in doing my research for this interview, the vice president had been using the joyful warrior term even years before she was vice president. She did an interview with Ellen DeGeneres and she described herself as a joyful warrior. And this is obviously a theme of the Harris-Walz campaign that I think is resonating with voters.”
He also claimed to observe how, “on the Republican side, they have been using, Joy, her laughing, and using that as a tool to suggest that she's not a serious candidate, particularly as a black woman, and the implications that that might give to voters. It was important for me to lift that up. And who doesn't love joy, Joy?”
That is what was important? Her “joy” and kooky accusations of racism?
Gaynor’s ode to Harris’s joy represents a journalistic conflict of interests. If TheGrio doesn’t care, does the NABJ care that one of the people they chose as a moderator viewed the opportunity as a way to boost one campaign over another? Ultimately, Gaynor simply said the quiet part out loud because most reporters seem to think their job is to boost Harris. The NABJ’s vastly different treatment of Trump and Harris is just one example.
Here is a transcript for the September 17 show:
MSNBC The ReidOut
9/17/2024
7:26 PM ET
JOY REID: Gerren, why did you ask that question?
GERREN KEITH GAYNOR: You know, it was important for me to ask that question because one, I noticed in doing my research for this interview, the vice president had been using the joyful warrior term even years before she was vice president. She did an interview with Ellen DeGeneres and she described herself as a joyful warrior. And this is obviously a theme of the Harris-Walz campaign that I think is resonating with voters. But also, because I noticed on the Republican side, they have been using, Joy, her laughing and using that as a tool to suggest that she's not a serious candidate, particularly as a black woman, and the implications that that might give to voters. It was important for me to lift that up. And who doesn't love joy, Joy?
REID: Exactly. Exactly, I totally agree.
