Kamala Harris has largely avoided interviews since becoming the Democrat nominee, despite the fact that many potential interviewers desperately want to help her. Emlyn Travis at Entertainment Weekly reported actress and talk show host Drew Barrymore said her interview with Harris last year was “the scariest conversation I’ve done in the entire show’s history.”
We and other conservatives mocked the interview as a sappy suckup session. So why was it scary? Why is Kamala such a precious flower that one gosh-we-love-ya interview with an actress could be a disaster? Barrymore explained at a September 9 conversation at the Paley Center for Media:
“I told [CBS Mornings producer] Shawna [Thomas] and Gayle [King], 'All I want to do with Kamala is have this be a more personal experience, not just for her, but the whole thing,'” Barrymore explained. “I want to disarm. I want to take the armor off. This isn't about talking about issues like that. This is not the place for that.”….
“All I kept thinking was, if you do one thing to screw up this woman’s path — and you are the clown to do it — and if you do one thing that makes her look bad, or becomes a gag, or just does something to… [interviewing] is such an art,” Barrymore said. “How do you get so personal? I've never… that's the scariest conversation I've done on the entire show's history.”
She continued, “I was like, if I tarnish this woman… I wanted to see her be fun and disarmed, but I was like, what if I do one thing that's goofy and she plays along, and I've led her down a bad path? That was making me so sick to my stomach, but I wasn't going to give up trying to [do it].”
The “good news,” Barrymore said, was that she didn’t have to pull any gimmicks with Harris because wasn’t guarded during their syrupy conversation. Not with sticky valentines like this:
DREW: I keep thinking in my head that we all need a mom. I’ve been thinking that we really all need a tremendous hug in the world right now, but in our country, we need you to be Mamala of the country.
What politician would fear this kind of interview? And yet, Harris is still honored for accepting overwrought compliments well:
“As we say, she came to play,” Paley Center moderator and CBS host Nate Burleson added. Barrymore responded with more gush! “She really did. And it was an electric connection. It was one of the most ignited, exciting experiences of my life, and it was about something that she lives every day, which is how to not get it wrong.”
