1 month ago

[Clip starts]
HOSTIN: “Since Trump has taken office, everything that you warned about has happened. Do you sometimes just want to scream, ‘I told y‘all so?’ And feel free to do it right now.”
Harris: “Sunny, nothing comes to mind.”
(Laughter)
[Clip ends]

HUNT: “Sound familiar, anyone? Former Vice President Kamala Harris with a quip this morning about one of the defining and most consequential moments of her presidential campaign that, of course, took place on that very set.”

[Clip starts]
HOSTIN: “Would you have done something differently than President Biden during the past four years?”
Harris: “There is not a thing that comes to mind.”
[Clip ends]

HUNT: “10 months and one failed presidential campaign later, Harris, now on book tour, offered this response when she was asked about that infamous moment.”

[Clip starts]
Harris: “That day and that interview, for me, really was symbolic of the issue, which is that I — I’m a loyal person and I didn’t fully appreciate how much people wanted to know there was a difference between me and President Biden. I thought it was obvious. And I didn‘t want to offer a difference in a way that would be received or suggested to be a criticism. (...) I realize now that I didn‘t fully appreciate that how much of an issue it was.”
[Clip ends]

HUNT: “Didn‘t fully appreciate how much of an issue it was, just the entire ballgame. Joining our panel now is Rahm Emanuel, CNN commentator, former White House chief of staff under President Obama. He also has many other titles: mayor, ambassador, father, we‘ve been talking about them. Mr. Mayor, you watched her reflect there and try to explain what she thought and why she said what she said during the campaign. What are you left thinking about her political future based on that?”
EMANUEL: “Well, I — look, I mean, you know, some people think being president is purely a management. You have to get — you have to — all good presidents, all great presidents have a deep appreciation for politics. To not appreciate that the question given that the people thought at that time that the country was headed — 70% thought it was headed in the wrong direction, they wanted to see a change, is to totally misread where the American people were. And that I‘m a little shocked at, to be honest. And that was not a trick question. That wasn‘t a pop quiz. That was the question. And not to have an answer — and even if you wanted to say, ‘Look, there are plenty of places we disagreed. But out of both loyalty and out of the character, I‘m not going to do that and air that publicly. It‘s not the right thing to do,’ at least then that becomes a character thing, not the answer. But to say you didn‘t appreciate that people were looking for a change, the irony is, if you look and do an autopsy of the election, she — Biden-Harris is eight points down. She gets the baton. She runs all the way up to three points up. That‘s 11 point swing from that interview and the debate forward. She goes back from change to continuity, and she loses the election by a point and a half. It was actually the continuity of Biden which is the trip point. And to say that you don‘t get it, you don‘t appreciate it, means you didn‘t understand where the election was or one of the major fault lines of the election was. People wanted a change, and you could have been that.”
HUNT: “Yeah, it‘s a really — it‘s actually very straightforward, especially when you — when you lay it out that way. No, go ahead.”
EMANUEL: “This was not a trick question. As I said, this was not a trick question. It wasn‘t a pop quiz. It wasn‘t one of those. This was a — you know, there was an affordability piece and there was a change versus continuity piece, and she gave up the mantle of change that she had occupied, and moving from 8 to 3 — eight down to three up. And the moment she started running on democracy and basically Joe Biden‘s message, she lost that advantage. And I don‘t understand how you don‘t understand. That‘s the part I don‘t get.”
HUNT: “Really, it’s so interesting.”

Loading comments...