CNN panel critical of Kamala Harris' town hall performance: 'Word salad city'
CNN commentators were critical of Vice President Kamala Harris' town hall on Wednesday, suggesting the vice president gave "word salad" answers when she didn't want to answer a question.
"The thing that would concern me is when she doesn’t want to answer a question," commentator David Axelrod said. "Her habit is to kind of go to word salad city, and she did that on a couple of answers. One was on Israel. Anderson asked a direct question, ‘Would you be stronger on Israel than Trump?’ And there was a seven-minute answer, but none of it related to the question he was asking."
Harris spoke to undecided voters at a town hall on Wednesday in Pennsylvania, which was moderated by CNN's Anderson Cooper.
"On certain questions like that, on immigration, I thought she missed an opportunity because she would acknowledge no concerns about any of the administration’s policies. And that’s a mistake. Sometimes you have to concede things and she didn‘t concede much," Axelrod said.
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CNN's Dana Bash argued that people she's spoken to don't think Harris sealed the deal.
"What I‘m hearing from people who I have been talking to, and that is that if her goal was to close the deal, they‘re not sure she did that. And, you know, some people have asked, is she being held to a different standard? Maybe. But that‘s maybe the world that she‘s living in. And on the question of who she is, people are understanding that a little bit more," she said.
Bash highlighted a few questions where Harris didn't have answers.
"But what she will do? The question about her legislative priorities, name one, there wasn‘t one. You know, some more of her personality and her sort of character questions about your weaknesses or what mistakes did you make, not necessarily the answers there," she said.
However, Bash said that Harris being in front of voters and talking to them directly was a "win" for the vice president.
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Jake Tapper said the vice president focused more on her opponent than her own policies.
"She focused a lot more on Donald Trump, I think it’s fair to say, than she did on many specifics in terms of what she would do as president," he said, noting Harris discussed some plans regarding small businesses.
"I think after eight years of Donald Trump, people are aware of Donald Trump’s persona, his proclivity for controversy, his potential to offend and the like. And I wonder if you think maybe she did too much," Tapper added.
John King suggested that Harris did need to make attacking Trump a priority and praised her for her answers where she talked about herself and her faith. However, he suggested that the VP fell short in trying to connect it to her policies.
"Where I think she fails sometimes is to connect it more to her policies," he said, suggesting Harris should embody some of former President Bill Clinton's persona. "He had a brand where he could look people in the eye and say, ‘I‘m on your side. I‘m fighting for the middle class,' right? Putting people first. That’s the connection she has to make."
He said that the "personal part" was sometimes missing from Harris' remarks.
Abby Phillip suggested Harris avoided specifics when pressed by some of the undecided voters present.
"The thing I think that kind of got her tripped up at certain times was when certain voters were asking to drill down, actually, on some policy, and she didn‘t want to go there, didn‘t want to get into some specifics," Phillip said. "But it’s tough for her because I think that that comes across as evasive to some voters … They just want to know are my taxes going to go up if I make $500,000 a year or not? It‘s very tricky for her."