Given Kamala Harris’s extremely low approval ratings (28 percent), the networks seem to think making the Vice President invisible is the best kind of damage control. That continued on Monday night and Tuesday morning as ABC, CBS and NBC all avoided video of a baffled Harris trying to figure out how an electric car actually works.
At a charging facility in Maryland, the VP couldn’t figure out how it all worked: “There’s no sound or fume.... So how do I know it’s working? How would I know that?” Older readers might remember how the media pounced on Dan Quayle for being out of touch or when they falsely said that George H.W. Bush didn’t know what a supermarket scanner was.
But when Harris looked clueless on Monday, ABC’s World News Tonight, Good Morning America, as well as the CBS Evening News, CBS Mornings and NBC’s Nightly News and Today all skipped it.
PBS uploaded video to the network’s Twitter page that conservatives mocked. But did Monday's NewsHour mention the gaffe? No. Judy Woodruff just covered other details:
Back in this country, the Biden administration proposed building 500,000 charging stations nationwide for electric vehicles. States will start construction next year, using $5 billion included in the new infrastructure law. Vice President Harris laid out the strategy today, at a charging facility in Maryland.
Back in October, Harris nodded along as a George Mason University student ranted about Israel’s “genocide,” praising the individual's “truth.” The networks and MSNBC avoided it. So when you notice no news related to the Vice President, assume it’s because journalists are avoiding her gaffes, failures and smears against others.
The silence on ABC was sponsored by Xfinity, on CBS by Progressive insurance and on NBC by Volkswagen.
A transcript of the PBS version is below. Click “expand” to read more.
PBS NewsHour
12/14/2021
7:19JUDY WOODRUFF: Back in this country, the Biden administration proposed building 500,000 charging stations nationwide for electric vehicles. States will start construction next year, using $5 billion included in the new infrastructure law. Vice President Harris laid out the strategy today, at a charging facility in Maryland. Energy secretary Jennifer Granholm joined in.
JENNIFER GRANHOLM (Secretary of the Energy): We have to get these charging stations out in every pocket of the country particularly in areas where the private sector has not felt it was to their best advantage to go so in rural areas, in poorer areas where we haven't seen a penetration of electric vehicles. We gotta get them everywhere.
WOODRUFF: President Biden has set a goal of making half of all new car and truck sales electric, by 2030.
