On CNN This Morning this Monday, anchor Victor Blackwell lamented that “Republicans are zeroing in on” Vice President Kamala Harris as part of their 2024 framing, noting that “a vote for President Biden is a vote for Vice President Harris” because of Biden’s age.
Along with CNN political reporter Daniel Strauss and Jamal Simmons, former communications director for Vice President Harris, Blackwell complained that this reasoning was “a really complicated argument” and “a little bit silly.” Meanwhile, it’s been reported that the White House was trying to boost the Vice President’s profile to assuage those concerned about Biden’s age.
Blackwell opened the segment with his declaration that “Republicans are zeroing in on a 2024 target,” condemning them for targeting someone who was “not even running for president.” After playing a few clips of Republican presidential candidates making the statements he was discussing, Blackwell explained the situation as though it was a one-sided attack on Biden and Harris for Biden’s age.
He also claimed that this “strategy has the numbers to back it,” since apparently the way that “Harris' approval rating trails behind Biden” was a tool that Republicans were using in their targeting.
Introducing Strauss into the conversation, Blackwell wondered aloud why these statements were being made, and why they seemed to be happening at that time. He speculated that these targeting statements were being made against Harris because “maybe an argument against the president may not be working, so they have to shift toward the vice president” to make effective attacks.
Strauss agreed here, condemning these candidates for these statements that “highlights Biden’s age” and “does something that, at a very base level, voters respond to, and that's the unknown”:
We know what a Biden presidency would be like. In a Republican primary, the idea—or what we don't know about a—a potential Harris presidency is a pretty ominous idea. And that's why those are the two reasons that multiple candidates are attacking Harris in this way.
Poppy Harlow, also an anchor on the show, then directed Blackwell’s question to Simmons, who stated that it was “a really complicated argument for Republicans to make and it's a little bit silly.” He claimed that the real, “simpler argument” that Republicans should be making was whether to elect Biden himself or not, declaring that “voters don’t usually make strategic voting decisions.”
Besides being offensive, the above statements were also not honest, since the White House itself was the instigator. Back in April, it was clear the White House was putting in effort to frame Harris as Biden’s competent successor, avowedly to combat Republicans’ “age-related attacks” (as the U.K-based Guardian put it) on President Biden.
These defensive maneuvers on the part of the White House were also made in an attempt to correct Harris’s low approval ratings, rather than these ratings being fuel for Republican attacks, as Strauss had claimed.
CNN's selective accusation of Republicans for something that the White House is also doing was brought to you by Stanley Steemer and Subway. Contact them via their linked contact information and let them know that this is what they're supporting.
Transcript of the segment below (click Expand):
CNN This Morning
8/7/23
7:38:41 AM ET
VICTOR BLACKWELL: Republicans are zeroing in on a 2024 target, and she's not even running for president: Vice President Kamala Harris.
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7:39:22 AM
BLACKWELL: The 2024 hopefuls, arguing a vote for President Biden is a vote for Vice President Harris, suggesting the 80-year-old president might not survive an entire second term.
The strategy has the numbers to back it. Harris' approval rating trails behind Biden, 42 percent of people approve how she's handling her job as vice president.
Maura Gillespie, Jamal Simmons, are back. Also with us, CNN political reporter Daniel Strauss. Daniel, let me start with you, because this is your reporting, and, I—I—I wonder though, why this, why now? I mean, it suggests that maybe an argument against the president may not be working, so they have to shift toward the vice president.
DANEL STRAUSS: Yeah. But it also does other thing: number one, it highlights Biden's age, and number two, it does something that, at a very base level, voters respond to, and that's the unknown.
We know what a Biden presidency would be like. In a Republican primary, the idea—or what we don't know about a—a potential Harris presidency is a pretty ominous idea. And that's why those are the two reasons that multiple candidates are attacking Harris in this way.
POPPY HARLOW: Well, remind people what you did with the vice president.
JAMAL SIMMONS: It's amazing, you come to me first. I was—
HARLOW: Well, Mr.—Mr. Former Comms Director.
SIMMONS: I was the communications director until Janu—January.
HARLOW: Yeah.
SIMMONS: Listen, I think this is a really complicated argument for Republicans to make and it's a little bit silly. It's a bank shot, right? You gotta hit Kamala Harris in order to go after Joe Biden, and that means you've got to ask voters to do two things at the same time.
And it just seems to me like there's a simpler argument. Either you think Joe Biden should be president, or you don't think Joe Biden should be president. To go after the vice president, I think is—is a little bit more complicated and voters don't usually make strategic vo—voting decisions.
HARLOW: Sure.
SIMMONS: They vote for the person they want in the top job.
HARLOW: Fair. But I think Daniel reporting is great. The “New York Times” piece this weekend is really fascinating where it calls her a “one-woman”—this is quoting—“a one-woman rapid response operation."
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