How news outlets on the left and right are covering Kamala Harris
SINCE president Joe Biden’s poor debate performance last month, many news outlets have pondered who could supplant him on the Democratic ticket if he were to step aside.
Media organisations across the political spectrum have pointed to vice president Kamala Harris as a potential replacement – although a risky one. How they have made that argument, though, has varied.
Many liberal news outlets have been hesitant to anoint a potential successor. But as they discuss the possible outcomes, some have started playing up Harris’ perceived strengths compared with Biden’s. Others have voiced scepticism about her ability to defeat former president Donald Trump in November, fearing that some people might be reluctant to vote for a woman of color.
Conservative publications have stepped up their criticisms of Harris, admonishing her record as vice president as well as making racist attacks, claiming she would be a disaster for the country if elected.
Here is how a selection of outlets have covered Harris.
From the left
Since Biden’s poor debate performance on Jun 27, many Democrats have raised the possibility that Harris could be better suited to defeating Trump. Yet a long-standing concern remains among some Democrats that many voters would not consider casting a ballot for Harris because she is a woman who is Black and Asian American.
BT in your inbox
Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox.
That has not stopped some liberal commentators from arguing for her to be at the top of the ticket. Writing this week for Slate, a liberal online magazine, Jill Filipovic said replacing Biden would “be much easier if the vice president were a white guy.” But she added that it was “hard to argue that Harris is the weaker candidate” compared with Biden. And she said Hillary Clinton’s loss to Trump in 2016 should not be a reason to hold back support for Harris.
“If we fear the candidacy-killing potential of racism and sexism too much,” Filipovic wrote, “we create a self-fulfilling prophecy, and we hand forever rule to white men.”
Jamilah King, an editorial director at Mother Jones, a liberal news and opinion site, wrote that Harris’ background as a prosecutor could help Democrats make a strong case against Trump leading up to November’s election, even if she remained the vice-presidential nominee.
“The smart bet would be to blanket the country with Harris, letting her hammer away at Trump’s long history of lies and predation,” King wrote in the essay, which carried the headline “Either Way, Kamala Harris Can Help Beat Trump.”
From the right
Since Harris was announced as Biden’s vice-presidential pick, the right-wing media has painted her as a far-left politician and has falsely claimed she is ineligible for the position as the child of immigrants. It has also argued that if she were chosen as the Democratic candidate, it would be simply because of her race.
Last weekend, The New York Post continued that line of attack in a column with the headline “America may soon be subjected to the country’s first DEI president: Kamala Harris.” The writer, Charles Gasparino, said that Harris was well positioned to become the nominee if Biden were to step down. But if he stayed on the ticket and won, Gasparino argued, she would still get the job because Biden would be unlikely to finish out a second term.
In such a case, Gasparino wrote, “Harris becomes the nation’s first DEI president by default. For the American people it would be such an unfair and odd coronation.”
Gasparino suggested Harris was chosen as Biden’s running mate only because of the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests. And he criticised her as vice president, writing that she flubbed “every assignment given to her,” including her job to help solve the crisis of migrant crossings along the US-Mexican border.
Conservative commentators on Newsmax, a right-wing outlet, have long criticised Harris. In 2021, former host Grant Stinchfield ran a segment on his show mocking Harris’ laugh, and last year the network covered Harris’ worst “gaffes” of 2023.
On Jul 6, the host Lidia Curanaj said on “The Count” that Harris had been “complicit in this cover-up, too,” referring to the White House’s efforts to stamp out questions surrounding Biden’s age. Newsmax continued its unflattering coverage of Harris during a segment of “Rob Schmitt Tonight” on Tuesday.
Anchor Rob Schmitt questioned whether Harris would fare better than Biden in the swing states of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.
In response to Schmitt’s question, Sebastian Gorka, a former White House aide for Trump, argued that Democrats would support her because of her race and gender. “She is a DEI hire. She is a woman. She is coloured. Therefore she is got to be good,” Gorka said. NYT
Share with us your feedback on BT's products and services
