Music Awards supersede 60 Minutes!

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2024

Bill Whitaker gets something right: How weird! But does it matter that 60 Minutes aired on Monday night, not on it's time-honored Sunday?

Was the audience smaller as a result? We have no idea.

That said, CBS made the obvious move. It bumped its election year "interview with the candidates" edition of 60 Minutes in favor of Sunday night's broadcast of the American Music Awards.

Let's face it! Within our failing civic culture, the Music Awards are the bigger deal—and everyone knows how this works.

We thought that schedule shift was remarkably strange. That said, Bill Whitaker asked a very basic, obvious question during his delayed interview with Candidate Harris last night. 

In fact, he asked the question three separate times! His first attempt went like this:

WHITAKER (10/7/24): You recently visited the southern border and embraced President Biden's recent crackdown on asylum seekers. And that crackdown produced an almost immediate and dramatic decrease in the number of border crossings. If that's the right answer now, why didn't your administration take those steps in 2021?

What explains the policy at the southern border during those first three years? We don't know if Vice President Harris even agreed with the border policy, but our public discourse is so juvenile, so underfed, that large swaths of American punditry act as if the policy there was somehow hers—as if she was the sitting president.

(That formulation controls the world on the Fox News Channel. Even here, Whitaker keeps asking Harris about "your administration." He never asked her if she agreed with President Biden's border policy in real time.)

For three solid years, President Biden failed to explain his policy at the border. We regard that vast silence as a vast derogation of duty—and it has saddled Candidate Harris with a policy question which is easy to formulate and very hard to explain.

At least, it seems to be hard to explain. When Harris didn't attempt to do so in her first exchange with Whitaker, he asked his question again:

WHITAKER: But I've been covering the border for—for years. And so I know this is not a problem that started with your administration.

HARRIS: Correct. Correct.

WHITAKER: But there was an historic flood of undocumented immigrants coming across the border the first three years of your administration. As a matter of fact, arrivals quadrupled from the last year of President Trump. Was it a mistake to loosen the immigration policies as much as you did?

With that, he had posed his question again. Again, the candidate failed to answer.

At this point, Whitaker asked for the third time. According to the CBS transcript, the full exchange went like this, continuing from above:

HARRIS (continuing directly from above): It's a longstanding problem. And solutions are at hand. And from day one, literally, we have been offering solutions.

WHITAKER: What I was asking was, was it a mistake to kind of allow that flood to happen in the first place?

HARRIS: I think—the policies that we have been proposing are about fixing a problem, not promoting a problem, okay? But the—

WHITAKER: But the numbers did quadruple under your

HARRIS: And the numbers today—

WHITAKER: —under your watch

HARRIS: —because of what we have done, we have cut the flow of illegal immigration by half. We have cut the—

WHITAKER: But should you have done that

HARRIS: —flow of fentanyl—

WHITAKER: —should you have done that— 

HARRIS: —by half. But we need Congress to be able to act to actually fix the problem. 

Three remains the magic number. At that point, having asked his question three times, the CBS newsman moved on.

Question: As vice president, did Harris agree with border policy over the first three (plus) years?

We don't know the answer! Given the way our politics works, it would be hard for her to say that she had disagreed with the policy decisions even if she actually had.

Whitaker asked an obvious question. In fact, he asked it three times.

That obvious question remains unanswered—and this may hand the White House to Candidate Trump. Again, we think President Biden's years of silence constitute a major derogation of fairly obvious duty.

We Blues were still hailing the greatness of Biden's presidency right up to the time when he had to withdraw from the campaign. We humans tends to defer to tribal leaders, Blue folk as well as Red.

At any rate, how about them American Music Awards? Life inside a failing society can be major fun in real time!

Still coming: To this day, Harris is routinely accused of bungling an interview with Lester Holt about the southern border. 

That interview took place in Guatemala City in June 2021. But did Harris bungle the famous interview, or is it possible that the bungling actually tracks to Holt?

(We can't link you to a transcript of the interview. As best we can tell, and if so all too typically, no such transcript exists.) 


41 comments:

  1. It might be hard for Harris to say if she disaggreeD with Biden's border policies, but it should be easy for her to say whether she now disagreeS with his policies. Will her policies be different? In what ways?

    In fact, I saw another interview where Harris was asked if she disagreed with anything Biden had done and she said no.

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    1. Here's the link https://x.com/TrumpWarRoom/status/1843671661943624014

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    2. She seems to have borrowed a page from the GOP playbook that they rely on when asked whether they agree that Biden won the last election. "I'm focused on the future!"

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  2. I highly recommend that anyone concerned about illegal immigration, contact their Congressional representatives, and ask them what they are doing to streamline immigration and make it easier to navigate.

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    1. I'm concerned about what Harris thinks about it and why the number of undocumented immigrants coming across the border quadrupled under Biden.

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    2. Kevin Drum shows stats for Sept border crossings. They are down to the numbers experienced by Trump in 2019, right before covid locked down everything (greatly reducing crossings). When the lockdown ended, the increase under Biden was not due to changes in policy (because Biden retained Trump's policies) but due to covid-related economic conditions in the donor countries from which people were coming to our border. Harris was dispatched to work with those donor countries and reduced emigration from them significantly. Addressing the causes of emigration was her idea, not Biden's. It worked but took time.

      As acknowledged by those who control our border, the main factor affecting immigration is not our own policies at the border but rather the conditions in the countries that people are leaving. No one leaves their country unless they have to. Helping people stay home works, but requires more effort than simply enacting harsh reprisals or harrassing those seeking asylum.

      Somerby never says so, but interviewers should study the issues before asking inane questions that reflect political bias, like those described here. Biden isn't going to be president again, so the most important thing to ask Harris is "what will you do?" not "how do you feel about what Biden did?" as Somerby suggests.

      Meanwhile, immigration stats suggest that immigration is much less of a concern than it was after covid and is now at levels equal to Trump's during his term. So, why is this Somerby's #1 concern?

      https://jabberwocking.com/border-crossings-drop-to-102000-in-september/

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    3. "So, why is [immigration] Somerby's #1 concern?"

      Perhaps because that's the concern that might decide the election. And it's clear that this concern is more salient for those in the red silo than for those in the blue one, supporting Somerby's thesis that we blues are sheltered from this concern, just as those in the red silo are sheltered from other concerns.

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    4. And yet most people list the economy as their #1 priority.

      I am suggesting that immigration has become a proxy for race in this election. That is more salient for those in the red silo too. We blues are not sheltered from it, we don't consider immigrants to be scary dangerous dark skinned people but rather workers who will strengthen our economy.

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    5. Or perhaps it's a proxy for the fact that there was a sharp spike in illegal immigration during Biden's term, a spike that we blues barely even heard about.

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    6. I did not know it had quadrupled.

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    7. "Biden isn't going to be president again, so the most important thing to ask Harris is "what will you do?" not "how do you feel about what Biden did?" as Somerby suggests."

      But at the same time this is such a predictable question, given the electorate's mood, that she should have a pat answer in her hip pocket that offers up some change in some policy somewhere.

      'Nothing' shows a weakness in campaign tactics.

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    8. Please contact your Congressional representatives, and ask them what they are doing to streamline immigration and make it easier to navigate.
      More immigration, will be reduce illegal immigration.

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    9. There was no immigration during covid due to lockdowns everywhere and travel restriction, so some of the surge was due to that year+ inability to move anywhere (pent up demand) caused by covid disruption everywhere. Then there was a decrease due to improving conditions in donor nations until immigration has returned to the level it was under Trump. Trump has lied and called this surge an open border, which it never was. Had the surge happened under Trump, he would have dealt with it worse, as he did poorly with everything else. He put kids in cages!

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  3. I didn't realize undocumented immigrants coming across the border quadrupled under Biden. That seems almost crazy. It's a great question to ask ... why?????

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    1. A also pretty reprehensible that R's scream Biden's open border for four years and tank a border bill to address the ossue.

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    2. If it had really been Covid, harris would have said so.

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    3. If I was a gambling sort, I'd bet a shiny Washington quarter that the excellent US economy is responsible for the surge in migration. People can come here and get jobs.

      It's not the most complex theory, but sometimes simple answers are the best answers.

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    4. The question is why undocumented immigrants coming across the border quadrupled under a different administration. How it might be linked to policy changes. The demand for crossing the border didn't quadruple.

      Dumbass.

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    5. "The demand for crossing the border didn't quadruple".

      How do you know, dicknut?

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    6. No doubt, making immigration easier to navigate will reduce undocumented immigrants.

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    7. Please be guest if you can prove the demand for border crossings quadrupled in 18 months without any associated change in policies. Jesus dude.

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    8. You seemed positive it hadn't quadrupled, so I figured you might have some facts at your command, but sounds like you pulled 'em out of your dumb ass.

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    9. The issue is whether the increase in crossings is due to demand or policy changes. Do you believe illegal crossings quadrupled over 18 months because of increased demand based on the "excellent US economy"? That was your original claim, wasn’t it?

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    10. No, due to bad conditions in people’s home countries.

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    11. Wasn't my original claim; I jumped in when I saw how sure you were about something it sounds like you know nothing about.

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  4. "For three solid years, President Biden failed to explain his policy at the border. We regard that vast silence as a vast derogation of duty—and it has saddled Candidate Harris with a policy question which is easy to formulate and very hard to explain."

    Aside from the fact that Biden retained much of Trump's border policy, Biden was fighting covid and implementing his recovery measures, and busy with other priorities that took precedence in his communication with the public. Trump has made immigration an issue in his campaign, but that doesn't mean Biden should have focused on it, other than to do his job, as he did competently with respect to border policy. Somerby's concern obviously arises from watching Fox News 24/7 and buying into Trump's framing of immigration as a hugely important issue.

    Harris told Whitaker that his characterization of the problem was incorrect, by correcting him with what she said. Somerby doesn't acknowledge that. He claims instead that she didn't answer the questions and should have been asked something different ("Did she agree with Biden's policy?")

    Rather than playing "gotcha" shouldn't Somerby listen to what she said and think about the border issue from her perspective instead of Trump's/Fox News?

    Who cares what Harris said to Holt in 2021? Shouldn't it matter more what she says now about her plans for dealing with border issues? Shouldn't Somerby look at and think about the actual success she had in reducing the causes of emigration with the donor nations sending people to our border? Shouldn't Somerby deal with Biden's policy, which has greatly reduced immigration, to the point that it is now equivalent to Trump's rates of border crossing and no longer inflated, as it was during covid?

    Is it a coincidence that Somerby seems to place the strongest importance on Trump's signature campaign issue? I find myself wondering why Somerby cares so much about immigration when he does not currently live in a border state or area with high immigration, and never has. Somerby has never explained why he thinks immigration is a problem at all. And he did not talk about it before Trump decided to run for office, calling immigrants rapists and murderers.

    Somerby always seems to wind up on the wrong side of racial issues, so it wouldn't surprise me if he were to defend Trump in the upcoming days, against these charges that he is embracing eugenicist ideas by claiming that murder is in the genes and immigrants have bad genes. This may be a racial issue for Somerby, just as it is for Trump. If so, perhaps he'll tell us why he thinks this is such a big deal that Harris didn't explain her border policy and Biden didn't either, when our country has had so many other things to worry about.

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    1. Who cares what Harris said to Holt in 2021? Shouldn't it matter more what she says now about her plans for dealing with border issues?

      Because maybe then she was being truthful as to what she would do if elected. As opposed to now, when she's lying through her cackling teeth.

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    2. Not to quibble, but voices cackle. Teeth? Not so much.

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    3. What about Long John Boaner?

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  5. "Question: As vice president, did Harris agree with border policy over the first three (plus) years?

    We don't know the answer! Given the way our politics works, it would be hard for her to say that she had disagreed with the policy decisions even if she actually had."

    Yes, we do know the answer to that question.

    Guess you didn't see Harris on "The View" today where she was asked the following question and gave the following response:

    "If anything, would you have done something differently than President Biden during the past four years?"

    KAMALA: "There is not a thing that comes to mind."

    You'll be seeing soon enough as the Trump campaign has used it in a new ad.

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    1. Leave it to Kamala Harris to show the courage of her convictions, and the ability to face criticism head-on, after the Right and Somerby accused her of running scared.
      She seems more Presidential every day.

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    2. Re; campaign ads.
      Fairs fair. If the Democrats can keep showing campaign ads of Republican voters trying to overthrow the government just because black people's votes counted in the 2020 Presidential election, there's no reason Republicans can't use video of Kamala Harris supporting her boss in their campaign ads.

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  6. The art of being a good politician is to answer uncomfortable questions broadly. It is always being so. In other words, if a truthful answer could hurt you, you play the artful dodger, I mean, duh.

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    1. That presumes that the question is "uncomfortable" for her. Why should it be when she and Biden did a good job with immigration?

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  7. "Howard Stern asked Vice President Kamala Harris if she would leave the country if former President Donald Trump defeats her next month.

    Harris stopped by Stern’s SiriusXM radio show following a live appearance on The View. Stern noted during the chat that Trump has promised retribution against some of his political enemies. Trump shared a call for former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) for instance, to be put through a “televised military tribunal” after she served on the congressional subcommittee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

    “If he wins, God forbid, would you feel safe in this country? Would you stay in this country?” Stern, who is voting for Harris, asked.

    “Howard, I’m doing everything I can to make sure he does not win,” Harris said."

    Many of us feel this way. If Trump wins, perhaps we'll see mass negative immigration, an exodus to more reasonable countries. I am a Hispanic citizen but I wouldn't want to wait around and see whether Trump really means to deport people like me. Hitler was never overly careful about who he put into camps. Why would Trump be any different?

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  8. Good move by Biden - reopening nuclear power https://www.voanews.com/amp/us-looks-to-resurrect-more-nuclear-reactors-white-house-adviser-says-/7815232.html

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  9. https://coloradonewsline.com/2024/10/05/education-where-do-harris-and-trump-stand/

    Somerby might usefully talk about this comparison of the education policies of Trump and Harris. There are some huge differences between them.

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  10. I was wrong about the Mississippi Miracle. The gains made by Mississippi fourth-grader disappear by the eighth grade.

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    1. If this were true, no one would remember anything they learn in school.

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  11. Breaking News:

    Another cosmic reveal of source code to be leaked in upcoming presentation at the Hotel Dehrste. Stay tuned for further deets...

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