Even with hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski away on Monday, the fill-in cast of MSNBC’s Morning Joe managed to meet their high bar for obnoxious praise for Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign; at one point even lamenting that they had overlooked how supposedly charismatic she was as they misguidedly focused on her failed 2020 run. A Washington Post columnist even suggested her charisma was why former President Trump was supposedly afraid to debate her.
Race-baiter and MSNBC weekend host Al Sharpton bloviated about “the other thing that a lot of people are missing” was “all of the enthusiasm” for Harris’s campaign. His evidence was “the numbers of volunteers they signed up last week.” He didn’t cite and actual number.
“And I spoke yesterday at her alma mater, Howard University. I saw young people there signing up and doing things that I had never seen in Washington, D.C.,” Sharpton boasted. she argued that the purported enthusiasm was “Something that I think people are missing, like they were missing the charisma of Kamala Harris.”
He was followed up by fill-in co-host Katty Kay, who lamented that they had paid too much attention to Harris’s 2020 attempt at president and had missed the signs that she was supposedly popular:
You’re right on the students issue too, because we knew even when she was vice president, before she had the abortion platform as part of her portfolio, she was getting long lines in colleges of kids wanting to turn out and listen to her speak, and she was getting a great response from them. And that was something perhaps that was slightly missed. We were all focused on her 2020 campaign, and how that didn't go very well. And the immigration part, but there were certainly parts of her portfolio and of her public performance that was going well.
Kay also touted how so many Democratic members of Congress “wanted to become surrogates” for Harris that, “They had to say, we don't have enough public-facing roles for everybody who wants to take part in this campaign as well.”
Earlier in the show, Washington Post columnist David Ignatius proclaimed that Harris’s charisma was why Trump didn’t want to debate her (despite her campaign holding things up over mics). “I think, as he plans for the debate, he has to appreciate that she is charismatic and charming on television in a way that he fancies that he is. The camera loves Kamala Harris,” he clownishly declared.
Adding: “She's learned in the cadence of her speeches, the way she presents herself, to be a formidable TV presence. Donald Trump knows TV. He's smart enough to know he's got a problem here. He needs to figure it out.”
The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read:
MSNBC’s Morning Joe
August 26, 2024
6:10:15 a.m. Eastern(…)
JONATHAN LEMIRE: So David, let's get your take to start with this suggestion from the former President that, ‘well, maybe I won't do that debate after all.’ There's been a lot of chatter in Trump world, that he is not eager to square off with the Vice President. We know that he has sometimes has trouble with taking questions from women – from powerful women. We've seen that throughout his political career. But she's not just a powerful woman, she's a prosecutor! And the idea of a prosecutor versus a convicted felon seems to be one that he's not particularly excited about.
DAVID IGNATIUS: So, I think what we've seen in the days before the convention and certainly after is that Trump just doesn't know how to deal with Kamala Harris. He opportunity know how to pigeon hole her. His usual language of belittlement, derision isn't working.
There is in the country this sense, I think, relief from an election that people were dreading between two candidates who have run before, an acrimonious, nasty convention, a sense of the country locked with these two older Americans. And suddenly, there was a convention that really was a joyous event and that said, we've turned a page. And Trump can't figure out how to turn his own page.
I think, as he plans for the debate, he has to appreciate that she is charismatic and charming on television in a way that he fancies that he is. The camera loves Kamala Harris. She's learned in the cadence of her speeches, the way she presents herself, to be a formidable TV presence. Donald Trump knows TV. He's smart enough to know he's got a problem here. He needs to figure it out.
(…)
7:12:40 a.m. Eastern
AL SHARPTON: But I think that the other thing that a lot of people are missing, that I want your thoughts on, is that with all of the enthusiasm, look at the numbers of volunteers they signed up last week. And I spoke yesterday at her alma mater, Howard University. I saw young people there signing up and doing things that I had never seen in Washington, D.C.
If they build an infrastructure to the campaign that absorbs a lot of this enthusiasm, yes, they may drop one or two points from the bump from the convention, but they will have an infrastructure that can catch that and keep it moving. Something that I think people are missing, like they were missing the charisma of Kamala Harris.
KATTY KAY: Yeah, there are reports over the weekend, as well. There have been so many members of Congress who wanted to become surrogates. They had to say, we don't have enough public-facing roles for everybody who wants to take part in this campaign as well.
You’re right on the students issue too, because we knew even when she was vice president, before she had the abortion platform as part of her portfolio, she was getting long lines in colleges of kids wanting to turn out and listen to her speak, and she was getting a great response from them. And that was something perhaps that was slightly missed. We were all focused on her 2020 campaign, and how that didn't go very well. And the immigration part, but there were certainly parts of her portfolio and of her public performance that was going well.
(…)
