Somehow managing to keep a straight face during NBC News special coverage on Tuesday, Meet the Press moderator Chuck Todd absurdly predicted that “you’ll see some progressives hand-wring today” that Joe Biden’s vice presidential pick Kamala Harris was not left-wing enough. That was after he claimed that the leftist California Democrat “struggled” between being a “progressive” or a “pragmatist.”
After declaring that Harris was “a really good campaigner” despite her failed presidential campaign, Todd acknowledged: “Yes, people will look back on her presidential campaign and say, gee, she struggled a little bit.” However, his hackish argument for why she “struggled” was this:
And I would argue one of the reasons she struggled is she was, you know, is she a progressive, is she a pragmatist? And you know, she was somewhere – someone in between, if you will. Sort of in between Elizabeth Warren and Joe Biden, which I think is another reason why they picked her.
In between Biden and Warren, that’s the definition of being a “pragmatist” now?
Todd continued downplaying Harris’s left-wing ideology:
She’s seen as somebody, I think, who can be a bridge to the progressive community. Though you’ll see some progressives hand-wring today. They’re not going to be – you know, that was why you saw a boomlet for Karen Bass, who was seen as more progressive, more to the left of Kamala Harris.
The lifetime American Conservative Union score for Kamala Harris is a whopping three percent. In 2019, her score was zero. She’s a committed far-left Democrat, but Todd and her other allies in the press have to cover up that fact in order to make her seem more palatable to voters.
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Here is a transcript of the August 11 exchange during NBC’s special report:
4:21 PM ET
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LESTER HOLT: Let me bring in NBC News political director and moderator of Meet the Press Chuck Todd. Chuck, talk about the politics of this now. The White House, we saw that image, we see it behind you, the White House, where clearly they’ve already been trying out talking points depending on which person was chosen today.
CHUCK TODD: Well, look, I think there’s a few things to bring up about this ticket. You know, number one, you know, the closest corollary I think it has, in sort of modern presidential politics, is actually Reagan-Bush 1980. You know, one of the most effective attack lines on Ronald Reagan in the primary came from George H.W. Bush, who called Supply-Side Economics, “Voodoo Economic.” And there was a lot of questions before he decided to put him on the ticket, and even after Bush was put on the ticket, “Oh, can he be trusted,” this or that. But it was a sort of powerful alliance that they realized they needed in 1980 as they kept their party unified, they thought they had a historic opportunity. A lot of us in political circles believe 2020 looks a lot like 1980. And so me that parallel, who hit Joe Biden the hardest in the primary, we were at that debate, Lester, it was Kamala Harris.
And so in some ways it shows you that, I think, he wants to send the message, hey, this is – you know, he doesn’t hold grudges, number one, but he does want someone who’s tough enough to campaign. I think she is a really good campaigner. Yes, people will look back on her presidential campaign and say, gee, she struggled a little bit. And I would argue one of the reasons she struggled is she was, you know, is she a progressive, is she a pragmatist? And you know, she was somewhere – someone in between, if you will. Sort of in between Elizabeth Warren and Joe Biden, which I think is another reason why they picked her. She’s seen as somebody, I think, who can be a bridge to the progressive community. Though you’ll see some progressives hand-wring today. They’re not going to be – you know, that was why you saw a boomlet for Karen Bass, who was seen as more progressive, more to the left of Kamala Harris.
But if you’re the Joe Biden campaign and if you look at the history of presidential candidates who were leading at the time they decided to pick their running mate, it almost is always the person everybody assumes it should be. And if you think about it, Lester, Biden-Harris was the ticket a lot of people were speculating on back when this campaign began in January of 2019.
HOLT: All right, Chuck.
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