CNN’s Jennings: Incumbent Harris Can’t ‘Wash Off’ Biden’s Blunders

FINNEY: “This is going to be hard. And we have got to keep doing the work, and it’s — we’re going to have to win the win.”
TAPPER: “And, I mean, do you agree with the assessment that still Donald Trump has the edge, I mean, that it is still right track/wrong track numbers, it’s still a change election, and Vice President Harris is the incumbent?”
JENNINGS: “Yes, I totally agree with that. And that’s the one thing about the convention that I think they couldn’t Wash off. And they’re trying. And with this new TV ad from Kamala Harris, there’s just a complete ignoring of the fact that she’s the sitting vice president, that she’s been at the center of American public affairs for a number of years, that she has a voting record, that she has public statements, and that she has a record for the last 3.5 years. I don’t know how they plan to cure that. I suspect at some point she’s going to have to look into a television camera and answer this question. Can you name one or two things that you think Joe Biden has done wrong? And she’s going to have to decide whether to answer that question or not. It’s hard, because the most consequential decisions he made, she was either the last person in the room on Afghanistan, her words, or she went up to the Senate and cast a tie-breaking vote. So I don’t know how she’s going to break with him. But if she wears him for the rest of the election, it will be very difficult to win.”
TAPPER: “Do you agree with that?”
BEDINGFIELD: “Well, but I think you already actually see some encouraging signs for her on this. I think there was a University of Michigan poll this month that showed that voters actually trust her on the economy — by a point, by a percentage point — more than Donald Trump, which is a huge inversion of the dynamic that we saw that was partially dragging Biden down. So, you know, I think in this first month since she’s taken on the mantle as the nominee, she’s done a really good job of threading this admittedly challenging needle of saying, ‘Here are the things that I have done, that I have been successful on, but here’s how I’m going to carry that forward in a new way, and here’s how, now that I’m at the top of the ticket, here’s how things are going to feel different.’ And I actually think people are responding to that. And that’s not an easy messaging needle to thread, but I think she’s done it quite effectively so far.”
Todd: “You know, I don’t think we have ever seen a vice president run for president basically renouncing everything about the administration. The Democrats are betting that the voters are gambling — or that the voters are lying when they say it’s on the wrong track pr they’re lying that they won’t hold them accountable. It’s like they think the voters believe America is on the wrong track for some other reason, other than the policies of this administration. I don’t know if it’s going to work, but we will see.”
BEDINGFIELD: “But she’s not — now, wait a minute.”
FINNEY: “Yes. Correct.”
BEDINGFIELD: “She’s not renouncing everything that the administration has done. She’s talked about the fact that they have been able to bring inflation down. She’s talked about policies that are going to continue to bring costs down. You see her build on that with the price gouging stuff. I mean, she’s not — it’s just not true that she’s standing up to say, ‘I reject everything we have accomplished.’ She’s saying, ‘Here’s how I’m building on it, and here’s how I’m going to make your life better in the next four years.’”
JENNINGS: “And, first of all, inflation is not down.”
BEDINGFIELD: “It is down. That is objectively true.”
JENNINGS: “No, no, false. The rate of inflation has dropped, but inflation is still going up. So let’s tell the truth about inflation.”
BEDINGFIELD: “Okay. The rate of inflation has come down. Wages also continue to outpace inflation. So that is a fact.”
Todd: “If you buy a truck, if you buy a pickup truck today, it’s $40,000. It was $30,000 when Joe Biden took over. If you get a mortgage, it’s twice as high. Prices are up. Inflation has cost — “
FINNEY: “Can we talk a little bit about, though, the economy that Joe Biden inherited from Donald Trump, which was a disaster? And we were in the middle of Covid, by the way. I mean, this post-Covid economy is very different than how the economy looked before Covid. We have — the way we work has changed dramatically since Covid. But — “
TAPPER: “I just want to read this from The New York Times deputy opinion, Patrick Healy, he — in an op-ed called ‘Joy Is Not a Strategy.’ He says: ‘She hasn’t been tested, really tested since Biden stepped aside. She hasn’t given a single interview or news conference to face hard questions. But it’s really the debates that will be her test. Her advisers think she might get away with doing just one against Trump. I think they underestimate her challenge in earning voters’ trust. She needs to start proving herself outside her comfort zone.’ Do you disagree?”
BEDINGFIELD: “I do disagree, actually. She is proving herself outside of her comfort zone. She has spent the last month — it was thrust upon her, this moment, where she had to rise to the occasion to take on the mantle of being the Democratic nominee, which is a huge moment. And she’s done it successfully. You have seen — you see momentum, you see people excited. So this notion, like, joy isn’t a strategy, joy is actually what people want. This is what they want to feel right now. And they’re feeling it from her. She’s also laying out substantive policy proposals, which she did in her nominating speech.”
FINNEY: “Yeah.”
BEDINGFIELD: “So the idea that these two things are somehow mutually exclusive, I don’t think that’s true. And what she’s doing right now is good politics.”
JENNINGS: “The joy will continue until morale improves. People don’t want to feel joy. They want to feel relief. The economic anxiety is real. And it is — you know, you can say inflation is down and I know that’s what the Democrats are going to argue. Not a single person who has bought a single thing in the last four years or in the last four minutes believes that. And I think you get in trouble in politics when you tell people something that does not match their lived experience.”
TAPPER: “So, everyone, stick around — “
BEDINGFIELD: “Republican strategist says, ‘People do not want to feel joy.’”
FINNEY: “Yes.”
TAPPER: “Everyone, stick around — “
BEDINGFIELD: “Interesting. That’s an interesting message.”
TAPPER: “We’re going to keep — we’re going to keep talking.”