Tuesday, September 24, 2024

Nothing to See Here, Really


This is not as simple as these tweeters think.

CNN's Jake Tapper asked/stated "Donald Trump saying that Kamala Harris has bigger cognitive problems than Joe Biden." Both tweeters slammed the CNN host for the question, with one stating "Tapper deserved it." 

We know what "deserved it" means when a woman is the victim of sexual assault but here it is less clear.  Pelosi's partial response was "Why would you even cover that? This is a person who is not on the level. He is the nominee for President. He is incompetent. Let's not even talk about the silliness of it all. We're not talking issues."

Of course, Republicans and news organs would say Harris "has a screw loose" if she said "idiotic and demented things." The media would do so because Republicans would slam her and the media would report the GOP criticism.

That's how it works. News organizations cover news and when the nominee of the two major parties says something worthwhile and/or outlandish, it's covered. The recipe for Trump's secret sauce includes remarks that are ridiculous to approximately 60% of the population His opponent's recipe includes an emphasis on joy and a claim that she is from and of the middle class, unlike the ostentatiously wealthy Republican nominee.

Trump knows how the game is played. Nancy Pelosi, despite whining "why would you even cover that" does also, including that attacking a journalist to his face rarely brings a rebuke. Kamala Harris, thus far running an excellent campaign, knows that the former House Speaker is more adept at deflecting charges from Donald Trump and turning questions against the interviewer than she herself does.

Jake Tapper's question was predictable and Nancy Pelosi's answer, reasonable. Harris does not say idiotic and demented things but, until she became Vice President, she did make comments that, if they were emphasized by the media, would be very controversial and probably fatal. We should be satisfied that she knew to retreat from those positions in the interest of defeating Donald Trump, a major reason that she has not done a solo interview with a journalist with a national platform.

If the Democratic candidate believed that Trump remains a viable candidate before Tapper and his colleagues gloss over his deceit, racism, rampant greed or cognitive ability, she would be out front slamming them for it. Given her carefully planned mercurial rise over the past six months, the relationship she has established and maintained with the media has been working just fine.




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