Americans are experiencing the highest inflation in 31 years, sky high gas prices and a catastrophic border crisis. Numerous polls have shown President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are even losing support from independent and Democratic voters less than a year into their administration. But ABC anchor George Stephanopoulos only mildly pressed VP Harris on these issues plaguing the country when she appeared on Good Morning America, Thursday.
The host and former President Clinton aide maintained a friendly tone with the Democratic VP, spending two questions/comments on the economy, only one question on the border and only one question on the disastrous polling for the president. Yet he devoted two questions from the left on Harris being “underused” and two questions on running again in 2024.
Stephanopoulos's easygoing demeanor with Harris stands in stark contrast to the combative tone he took with Vice President Mike Pence last August on the show.
“You know that as Americans are feeling pretty sour about the economy as we head into the holidays it will cost more to drive home for Thanksgiving, more to put the turkey on the table, more to buy gifts for the kids at Christmas,” he noted. “What can you do about these high prices, how long is it going to take?” he pressed Harris.
After defending the administration as working on supply chain issues, Harris appealed to Congress to pass the president's far-left, extremely expensive Build Back Better plan to supposedly save the economy. To Stephanopoulos’s credit, he pointed out criticism from Biden’s own party that this bill would only worsen inflation: "But as you know, several people, including Senator [Joe] Manchin [D-WV] who could be the key vote on Build Back Better, believe the building is actually going to make inflation worse. That's why they're holding back."
Harris appealed to experts on her side, such as Moody’s Mark Zandi, a Democratic donor, who agreed with her that the massive spending bill “is going to bring the cost down.”
That was it on the economy. Stephanopoulos then questioned Harris on the devastating polls which his network originally hid:
We had a tough poll for the president this week at ABC news with The Washington Post, highest disapproval of his presidency shows that most Americans don't think the administration is keeping its promises. How do you explain that and how do you fix it?
The VP brushed off the criticism and touted the administration’s infrastructure win instead. Stephanopoulos could've followed up by asking Harris about another poll from Politico/Morning Consult, on Wednesday, which found 48 percent of Americans think Biden is not mentally fit to be president. But he didn't.
Americans came to this conclusion all on their own as the media does their best not to comment on Biden’s frequent memory lapses. But just last October, ABC’s Jonathan Karl was stirring up rumors about President Trump’s health, warning Americans not to trust what the White House says about the Republican’s health.
Next was the border. The ABC journalist noted Biden had given Harris "the job of addressing the root causes of migration," "[B]ut last month we learned that in the past year we had the highest number of illegal border crossings since they started to be recorded in 1960. What are you doing to turn that around? How long will it take?" he asked.
Stephanopoulos didn’t press Harris on falsely attacking border patrol for the fake horse whips story. He did let her get away with blaming the previous administration for the border crisis, and giving no fact-check to that nonsense.
While dedicating ZERO follow-up questions to the issues that actually matter to Americans, Stephanopoulos did "press" Harris from the left on being underused and on running again in 2024 [click "expand"]:
STEPHANOPOULOS: Let's talk about your role now. Vice presidents always face chatter about their role and relevance. You're no exception to that even your close friends and allies like Lieutenant Governor of California, Eleni Kounalakis, have expressed some frustration because they think you can be more helpful than you've been asked to be. Do you share that frustration? What do you say to your friends who are frustrated?
[..]
STEPHANOPOULOS: So you don't feel misused or underused?
[...]
STEPHANOPOULOS: Finally has President Biden told you whether he’s going to seek re-election in 2024?
[...]
STEPHANOPOULOS: So you're not discussing 2024 yet?
ABC's soft questioning of Vice President Harris was sponsored by Geico, whom you can contact at the Conservatives Fight Back page linked.
Read the transcript below:
Good Morning America
11/18/21
7:12:04-7:18:03 AM EST
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: We go to my interview with Vice President Kamala Harris. She weighed in on the sharp rise in inflation, the steep fall in the president's poll numbers, how the administration's build back better plan can address both problems and I pressed Harris on claims the president is not giving her a big enough role in his administration.
Madam vice president, thank you for doing this.
KAMALA HARRIS: Good to be with you, thank you George.
STEPHANOPOULOS: You know that as Americans are feeling pretty sour about the economy as we head into the holidays it will cost more to drive home for Thanksgiving, more to put the turkey on the table, more to buy gifts for the kids at Christmas. What can you do about these high prices, how long is it going to take?
HARRIS: First of all, it's real and it's rough. Groceries, the cost of groceries has gone up. The cost of gas has gone up and this is all happening in the context of two years of a pandemic. It's one of the highest priorities actually for the president and for me and so we're dealing with this issue in a number of ways, short term, one of the issues is the supply chain. We're seeing a bottleneck and we need to relieve that bottleneck, so we brought together everyone from the teamsters to Target to say, hey, let's ALL bring everyone together from the truckers to the folks who are moving product and let's open up some of our major ports for work 24 hours a day 7 days a week. That's happening and we’re seeing great results. Long term we need to bring down the cost of living. That's a long-standing issue and so we passed this week the infrastructure bill, a bipartisan infrastructure bill and that's going to be about repairing roads and bridges and bringing high-speed internet to all families but also we need to deal with the cost of child care, the cost of prescription drugs, the cost of housing and that's what we intend to do when we get the Build Back Better agenda passed.
STEPHANOPOULOS: But as you know, several people, including Senator Manchin who could be the key vote on Build Back Better, believe the building is actually going to make inflation worse. That's why they're holding back.
HARRIS: Here's the thing, talk to 17 Nobel laureates who are economists who actually have studied the issue and have indicated that we're not looking at a contribution to inflation but actually we're going to get prices down. In fact, Moody's and a number of others have said, listen, when you look at the numbers, the whole point about inflation and why it hurts us is because prices go up. With the build back better agenda it's going to bring the cost down.
STEPHANOPOULOS: We had a tough poll for the president this week at ABC news with "The Washington Post," highest disapproval of his presidency shows that most Americans don't think the administration is keeping its promises. How do you explain that and how do you fix it?
HARRIS: You know, George, polls, they go up, they go down but I think what is most important is that we remain consistent with what we need to do to deal with the issues that we're presented with at this moment and so let's again look at what we accomplished. It's historic in nature. At least the biggest investment in infrastructure in a generation in America and some of this stuff you'll see in the next few months and some of this you're going to see in the next perhaps couple of years.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Eight months ago the president gave you the job of addressing the root causes of migration. But last month we learned that in the past year we had the highest number of illegal border crossings since they started to be recorded in 1960. What are you doing to turn that around? How long will it take?
HARRIS: It won't be overnight. We can't just flip a switch and make it better. The reality is we inherited an immigration system that was deeply broken and it's requiring us to actually put it back together in terms of creating a fair process that is effective and efficient. But on the root causes piece, what we are looking at is that, you know, frankly people don't want to leave home, George. And when they do, it's one of two reasons, they're fleeing some kind of harm or to stay at home they just simply cannot satisfy the basic needs of their family.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Let's talk about your role now. Vice presidents always face chatter about their role and relevance. You're no exception to that even your close friends and allies like lieutenant governor of California,Eleni Kounalakis, have expressed some frustration because they think you can be more helpful than you've been asked to be. Do you share that frustration? What do you say to your friends who are frustrated?
HARRIS: This was a good week and this week when we got this bipartisan infrastructure act passed and signed by the president, makes a statement about all of the hard work that has gone into it month after month after month. I've traveled around the country as has the president and we have convened members of congress, we have convened people around our nation asking what do you want and this is a response to what they want and it's actually going to hit the ground in a way that is going to have direct impact on the American people. We're getting things done and we're doing it together.
STEPHANOPOULOS: So you don't feel misused or underused?
HARRIS: No. I don't. I am very, very excited about the work that we have accomplished but I am also absolutely, absolutely clear-eyed that there is a lot more to do and we're going to get it done.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Finally has President Biden told you whether he’s going to seek re-election in 2024?
HARRIS: What we started our day talking about as we normally do is bringing in members of our intelligence community to review the presidential daily brief and talk about classified information around threats to our national security and hot spots around the world. After that we had another couple of meetings and then I went over to the Capitol because I'm the president of the Senate and broke a tie vote there and we are focused on implementation of the bipartisan infrastructure deal.
STEPHANOPOULOS: So you're not discussing 2024 yet?
HARRIS: Absolutely not.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Madam vice president, thank you very much for your time.
HARRIS: Thank you.
STEPHANOPOULOS: She wasn't going anywhere near that question. [laughter] No way and the president has said at other times he intends to run again but of course there is a lot of jockeying behind the scenes right now.
