GHOULS: CNN Helps Kamala Campaign With Softball Phone Interview Amid Hurricane Milton

Curtis Houck
October 9th, 2024 6:00 PM

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In addition to a subsequent phone interview with The Weather Channel, CNN eagerly helped Vice President Kamala Harris insert herself into the news cycle Wednesday with a softball interview when the country’s news media should be entirely focused on the potentially catastrophic Hurricane Milton set to strike Florida’s Gulf Coast. 

Instead, Inside Politics host and State of the Union co-host Dana Bash treated her to nearly nine minutes focused on her alleged role in the federal government’s preparations (which she has no power over) and putrid political kvetching that alleged Republicans are trying to get people killed with “misinformation” about the storm.

Afterward, Bash and CNN colleagues expressed hope people listened to Harris!

CNN’s Daniel Dale — who can be thought of as their resident Randall from Recess — was in the middle of hyperventilating about Republicans being beacons of lies when he was interrupted for the interview.

Bash began with a softball that, along with the fact it was done over the phone, meant Harris could read from notes (click “expand”):

 

 

BASH: What is the most important thing that you learned that you want to amplify for Americans who are in the path of this dangerous storm right now?

HARRIS: The briefing was very helpful on a number of fronts, but most importantly, in getting the word out to folks in Florida in particular to please heed the advice and direction of your local officials because this storm is unlike anything we have seen before and that’s the point of emphasis. This is unlike anything we have seen before. We got a lot of tough, strong people in Florida who have been through a lot of hurricanes, tornadoes, but this is not like anything they’ve dealt with before. So, if they have been told to evacuate, they must evacuate. We expect that this is going to be catastrophic and deadly and I would emphasize that. I would also emphasize the information that we received that, even if the — the designation of the categories shifts from a five to four that’s not actually a downgrade in terms of the danger and the dangerous potential of it. And so let’s not have people rely to their detriment on, oh, this sounds like it’s going to be less serious than we thought. They made very clear category five, category four are almost equivalent in terms of the danger and the damage that they will create, so I would — I would urge people to really take that information away as well as to note there are dedicated folks on the ground from FEMA, from federal, state, and local agencies that are there to help you, to help you in terms of advice now, to help you get out and to help with recovery and rebuilding after this storm and this hurricane passes.

This continued with another weak question about FEMA funding that, again, allowed Harris to stay on script:

 

This disgustingly led in to the rest of the Milton-related questions being about something CNN has seemed to think is equally important (or close to it): “misinformation.”

Bash griped about “this dangerous misinformation that is coming from a lot of corners, including [Donald Trump]” and wondered if she’s “spoken to GOP officials in Florida to figure out how to help combat that right now”.

Of course, Harris only spoke in vague generalities about having spoken to “sheriffs,” “mayors,” and “local officials” about the “unconscionable” and “dangerous” rhetoric (from Republicans). 

She couldn’t bring herself to say anything about Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis, though, since he schooled her Monday about her Fatal Attraction-like desire to talk to him.

 

 

Bash doubled and tripled down, including a cartoonish question about misinformation on Hurricane Milton (and Helene prior) coming via “foreign adversaries” (aka Russia) (click the tweets to see the transcripts):

Like when her teleprompter went down last week, Harris fumbled and bumbled her way through a non-answer when Bash surprised her with a subject change:

Bash tossed back to CNN News Central co-host Boris Sanchez in the storm zone not with an update on how he’s doing or the current conditions, but wondering if people were going to listen to Kamala Harris.

Sanchez then complied by making his entire answer about “disinformation” and even dumped on an elderly woman hauling debris from Hurricane Helene (perhaps storm damage to her home and livelihood):

Bash spent the final five minutes of the hour with Sanchez’s co-host Brianna Keilar and Harris correspondent Priscilla Alverez continuing to spin up this manufactured news cycle that scores up scores of Americans in the path of Milton are in danger because of this incredibly vague claim of “misinformation” (aside from the truly disgusting conspiracy theory about Jews controlling the weather):

At one point in the above video, Keilar offered faux regrets about how “politics [have] been injected into this” and even threw a veiled jab at DeSantis:

[W]hen you listen to Ron DeSantis — right — he is going to be judged by how his government, his state government reacts to this storm. He is going to be judged in very real terms. He’s going to be judged politically for that as well.

To see the relevant CNN transcript from October 9, click here.

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