NBC’s Today couldn’t measure up to the hackery on ABC and CBS Friday morning in recapping the final day of Democratic National Convention, but they still delivered plenty of pathetic lines cheering “moderate” Vice President Kamala Harris’s “impassioned speech framing the election in historic terms...and delivering a searing rebuke of” Donald Trump but hoping to govern from “the center”.
“Living history...Kamala Harris makes it official, the first woman of color to reach a major party ticket with an impassioned speech framing the election in historic terms...and delivering a searing rebuke of her rival...This morning, her vision for the future, Donald Trump’s real-time reaction, and where the 2024 race goes from here,” co-host Savannah Guthrie announced in a tease.
Chief White House correspondent Peter Alexander again led off and, this time, he touted Democrats as having told him “this was an exhilarating week”.
Alexander had his own valentines to hand out: “Kamala Harris in front of an arena bursting with energy, acknowledging her sudden rise to the nomination and saying that she is no stranger to unlikely journeys, hoping this one ends in the Oval Office. Vice President Kamala Harris taking a step toward history...Harris weaving her life story into a vision for the country[.]”
While he gushed that she “end[ed] with optimism” and threw a fawning question of “what did it feel like” to her in the hallways under the United Center, Alexander acknowledged Harris was partisan by telling viewers she “spent considerable time criticizing former President Trump.”
Meet the Press moderator Kristen Welker upped the bias by admitting “a lot of Americans aren’t that familiar with her history...and what her vision is for the future” and then conceding the policy elements of her speech were “largely built on the Biden agenda” and thus “didnt...lay out where she might differ from” him.
Welker then dropped the m-word: “[S]he cast herself very carefully as someone who was moderate, so that could potentially reach out to some of the moderates, independents who are going to be critical in winning this election.”
Guthrie agreed, adding she “donn[ed] that aura of a prosecutor that feels comfortable to her” by “us[ing] sometimes legal language in making the case against Donald Trump...and she did seem to move to the center, talking tough on immigration, for example.”
Senior Washington correspondent Hallie Jackson agreed, highlighting “the Democratic strategy, to broaden the number of people that will come into the tent and vote for Kamala Harris.”
Alexander returned in the second hour to again sing Harris’s praises and fawn over a New York Times photo of Harris from the view of her grandniece, Amara Ajagu (click “expand”):
[Catching Harris in the hallway] was pretty good fortune at the end of this last week. It’s been fun to be with you here in Chicago, Savannah. Kamala Harris in front of this arena was that bursting with energy, acknowledging her sudden rise to the nomination and saying she is no stranger to likely journeys with Democrats saying she will end up in the Oval Office.
(....)
Harris never explicitly acknowledged the historic nature of her candidacy, but this photograph by The New York Times really spoke volumes. Take a look at this. There is Harris on the stage accepting the party’s nomination. And that is her great niece right in the first row as Harris spoke about the possibility that she could be the first woman of color to serve as this country’s president.
To see the relevant NBC transcript from August 23, click here.
