‘I want to see her challenged’ - swing voters unconvinced by Harris interview
- Published
Kamala Harris’s first interview since becoming the Democratic presidential candidate was an opportunity to introduce herself - and her campaign’s message - to Americans who say they do not yet know her or for what she stands.
The vice-president defended her record in the White House and addressed questions about a series of policy shifts since she first ran for the top job in 2019 during the CNN interview on Thursday.
Ms Harris and her running mate - Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, who joined her for the interview - have enjoyed a surge of enthusiasm from Democrats in recent weeks, but the campaign knows they must win over undecided voters to win November’s election.
Young men are a significant proportion of those persuadable voters, and a group that Republican Donald Trump has been aggressively targeting with a slew of recent media appearances on podcasts that boast audiences that are largely young and male.
Given the battle for their vote, what did three of them make of Ms Harris’s first sit-down interview?
This software engineer backed Democrats in the last two elections but remains undecided in 2024.
Harris can speak coherently, which I think is just an upgrade from the prior two candidates, both Trump and Biden. I think she's relatively eloquent in the way that she talks. But in terms of policy, this was the first time I think I’ve actually heard some elements of substantive policy from her.
The interview didn't do a whole lot to assuage my concerns - what she’d actually want to do and whether she'd be able to effectively implement it. You’ve been VP for a few years, why haven't you attempted these things before?
The interview didn’t change my mind on how to vote. To be honest, I want to see her challenged in a press conference or obviously the debate that's coming up. I think I need to see her in that kind of a setting, without a teleprompter or rehearsed answers. I think the interview was a little too coddled. I want to see her put under some pressure. I don't think she's done too well in the past as the VP in those situations.
Walz came across as very personable. I think he helps kind of instill a sense of this good old American, kind of down-to-earth feeling that I think was missing from her in particular. I do like his addition to the ticket.
A teacher who voted for the Green Party in 2020, Jeremy felt Harris’s message lacked conviction.
I feel they've been very vague. I understand why, to a degree, from their perspective that it's more ‘Let's make this about Donald Trump,’ rather than about policy. But that only gets you so far.
I was frustrated with her for saying the phrase ‘My values have not changed, but my policies have.’ If you were consistent on your values, if you want clean energy, then you would still be in favour of the ban on fracking.
When they talked about the Israel and Gaza she said we're going to maintain the Biden administration policy. It's a policy that, at least to me, has failed both Jews and Palestinians. People on both sides seem to be no closer to a deal and people on both sides continue to suffer. So saying we're going to maintain a policy that has gotten nowhere in almost a year feels almost like she's rather just trying to not lose voters rather than say I'm going to work towards a solution.
I didn’t hear enough to persuade me yet. Because it feels like, on one hand, she's saying, we'll be different to Biden, but on the other hand, it's also like it's just going to be the same with a new face.
A student who did not vote last time, he feels lost since his favourite candidate, Robert Kennedy Jr, endorsed Trump.
I wasn't particularly impressed, to be honest. I don't think the interview revealed much. I also understand that’s sort of politics, and that's going to be true of any given campaign, that the more specific they get, the easier it is to campaign against them.
I appreciated when Harris specifically was talking about her planned measures for economic reform and this opportunity economy she was talking about. But I don’t think it was particularly compelling or the questions were particularly challenging.
I'm not sure if anything in it would convince me to vote for the Harris-Walz campaign. One of the big reasons people were excited for Harris taking over the ticket - after Biden was so bad in live, unscripted environments - was that she was young and she might infuse more energy into the Democratic campaign. But because of the lack of live interviews and answering questions so far I still have concerns about their competency.
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North America correspondent Anthony Zurcher makes sense of the race for the White House in his weekly US Election Unspun newsletter. Readers in the UK can sign up here. Those outside the UK can sign up here.