"Would it kill you?" Acosta asks!

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 14, 2024

Timpf says Harris says words: As a starting point, consider this:

Tucker Carlson was the founder of the web site in question.

That doesn't mean that the site in question could never present decent work. But that bit of history might qualify as a sobering place to start.

We refer to The Daily Caller. Headline included, here's the start of a brand-new report at that site—a report about the troubling fact that Candidate Harris hasn't done a press event in the course of her White House campaign:

‘Would It Kill You?’: CNN’s Jim Acosta Repeatedly Presses Harris Campaign Spox About Lack Of Press Conferences

CNN anchor Jim Acosta repeatedly pressed Harris-Walz campaign communications director Michael Tyler on Wednesday about Vice President Kamala Harris’ lack of commitment to hold a press conference.

Harris has not held a single press conference or participated in an interview in the last 24 days since she launched her campaign on July 21. Acosta repeatedly questioned Tyler on whether the campaign will commit to holding a press conference by the ending of the month during a segment on “CNN Newsroom with Jim Acosta.”

[...]

Acosta told Tyler that a rally is not a press conference and repeated his question on why Harris has not held one. Tyler said Harris will commit to a sit-down interview by the end of the month and will participate in press conferences on unspecified dates.

“I don’t want to belabor this, but one interview before the end of the month, I mean, that’s not a lot,” Acosta said. “I mean, can you commit to a press conference before the end of the month?”

He didn't want to belabor the point, but he did so anyway! "A rally is not a press conference," Acosta thoughtfully said. 

Thus spake Jim Acosta, who may be the world's nicest guy! Along the same lines, we'll offer this additional insight:

Twenty-four days is not the same as (let's say) several years!

Newsflash! Major presidential candidates may spend several years assembling the policy platform with which they'll run for the White House.

(Vanity candidates just go out and start flouncing around.) 

By way of contrast, Candidate Harris was thrust into action by President Biden's decision to step aside from the campaign. The president made his announcement just over three weeks ago. That's when Harris became a candidate in the current White House race.

During that time, Harris has had to win the support of delegates to the Democratic Convention. She's had to assemble the infrastructure of a winning national campaign, and she's had to supervise the selection of a vice presidential candidate. 

She's also had to start assembling the policy architecture of this sudden campaign. Keeping such points in mind, we now offer a minor insight to people like Acosta and his colleague John Berman, but especially to the hirelings on the Fox News Channel who have been beating this topic to death:

Duh! Here's the last thing some such candidate wants to do in this (highly unusual) situation:

The last thing some such candidate wants to do is to rush out prematurely and commit something our journalists might decide to call a "gaffe" regarding a policy platform which is still being formed. Under these (highly unusual) circumstances, that would be a very dumb thing for a serious candidate to do.

Other candidates have years to get their basic presentations together; Harris has had three weeks. Despite that obvious state of affairs, the flyweights on the Fox News Channel have been acting shocked, just shocked by the fact that Harris hasn't rushed out to answer their leading question in these first few weeks after Biden stepped aside.

At the risk of seeming impolite, we're forced to make an observation:

The dumbness on the Fox News Channel is something to behold. Here's part of the way this general topic was being batted around last night on the latest edition of the Gutfeld! program:

GUTFELD (8/13/24):  Kat, this is so humiliating for Time magazine! They put Kamala Haris on its cover and did a fawning piece, after she denied an interview and wouldn't even sit for a photo! 

They had to sketch her out like she was sitting on a chair in Times Square! Ha ha ha ha ha ha!

[AUDIENCE LAUGHTER]

Isn't that hysterical?

TIMPF: It's so crazy that they [presumably, the Harris campaign] appear to just be using like the Biden model. Which is what—people kind of accepted it because they're like—because like, "Look at the guy! [CHUCKLES] Can he sit for the interview physically?" 

Right? Like, there were those issues. But they're just doing the same thing even though she's, to my assumption, she seems to be able-bodied. She walks around. She says words. 

[PANELISTS' LAUGHTER]

I think it's very obvious she is not a candidate so much as a media-manufactured vibe.

GUTFELD: Exactly.

TIMPF: And I get if she's herself and she goes out it will ruin that vibe.

Candidate Harris does "say words," this possible flyweight observed. To drink in the arrogance of these dopes, you have to watch their ersatz conversations. To do so in this case, you can start by clicking here.

Whatever their other merits might be, these people are genuine flyweights. Timpf couldn't think of any reason why a person in Harris' (very unusual) position wouldn't want to spend an afternoon sitting for an interview and engaged in a photo session.

(In fairness to Timpf, she's being paid to perform this way, and she seems to understand her role.)

How will Candidate Harris fare when she does roll out her platform and when she does engage in interviews? That remains to be seen.

She may do well at that time, and then again, she may not. As for Fox News Channel personnel, few of them seem to have heard that vice presidents don't make the policy decisions within an American White House.

Meanwhile, the flyweights mocking Harris last night—the flyweights who were prepared to acknowledge the fact that she does say words—those flyweights are supporting Candidate Trump, and are ignoring his endless array of crazy statements, all the way down the line.

They're being paid to behave that way; behave that way they will. They mention none of his extremely peculiar claims. Meanwhile, their conduct is being normalized through a process of benign neglect.

Why hasn't Candidate Harris done any press sessions yet? In our view, the possible answers seem fairly obvious. Eventually, she will have to go out and match the brilliance of Candidate Trump on the policy front.

(The border will offer a challenge.)

This next part of her sudden campaign will apparently start this Friday. The Democratic Convention occurs next week. Presumably, her policy rollout will coincide with that four-day event.

For now, the performers on various Fox News Channel shows have been beating this topic to death. In the past few days, CNN's Acosta and Berman also got into the act.