What A Day: Policy *Bonk* | Crooked Media
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What A Day: Policy *Bonk*

Vice President of the United States Kamala Harris (R) and Democratic vice presidential candidate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (L) are standing on stage at the Fiserv Forum during a Harris-Walz campaign rally in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States, on Tuesday, Aug. 20, 2024. (Photo by Kyle Mazza/NurPhoto via AP)

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Vice President of the United States Kamala Harris (R) and Democratic vice presidential candidate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (L) are standing on stage at the Fiserv Forum during a Harris-Walz campaign rally in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States, on Tuesday, Aug. 20, 2024. (Photo by Kyle Mazza/NurPhoto via AP)

SAY LESS

Right-wingers and the media are pushing Kamala Harris to get more detailed about her policies and plans. But caving to that pressure may not be what voters really want — and may not even be a good idea, political strategists tell What A Day.

  • Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN), agreed to sit for their very first big, mainstream interview of the campaign, planning a joint appearance on CNN this Thursday evening. The announcement follows weeks of pressure from everyone in disgraced former President Trump’s orbit, and many in the media, that effectively turned Harris’ media strategy into a story of its own. They want to ask her about all sorts of things — especially the more-progressive positions she took earlier in her career and has now walked back, and to get a lot more detailed about the future policies of a Harris administration. Conservative Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) recently piled on, claiming Harris “owes the American people answers.”
  • Yet some experienced political hands are doubtful that what voters really want is a bajillion-point policy plan on… just about anything. “Polling right now is proving the theory that voters are mostly post-policy at this point,” a Democratic strategist in a battleground state told What A Day. “Why would Harris want to ‘prove to voters she isn’t light on policy’ when we already know what they care about: abortion, economy, social security …  If I’m Kamala Harris I don’t want or necessarily need a policy section on my website.”
  • It’s not like the other side is eyeballs-deep in detailed policy briefs. Trump is both laughably vague on policy, and will change on a dime when he feels like it. The most we really know about his plans come from the infamous right-wing Project 2025 platforms, which he’s now attempting to run away from. Nobody expects him to expand on his stances at the upcoming debate. If Harris goes into the nitty-gritty on thorny issues now, she risks losing the momentum she has gained during her rapid campaign rollout, analysts say.

Yet Harris is also being pushed from within her party to be more specific about some issues, too.

  • One policy topic that she’ll continue to be pressed on: U.S. policy toward Israel. Many pro-Plaestinian activists have grown increasingly frustrated with Harris since the Democratic National Convention last week, during which she delivered a speech that didn’t call out Israel’s handling of the war on Gaza that has killed some 40,000 people, according to local health authorities. So far, she has maintained the Biden administration’s stance toward the issue, refraining from calling for an arms embargo on Israel that activists believe would stop the war.
  • “If she’s serious about getting the vote of a unified Democratic Party, she needs to take immediate action to achieve a cease-fire,” Hala Rharrit, a longtime State Department diplomat who resigned over Biden’s Israel policy, told What A Day. “Rhetoric is not enough — a policy shift is required. If she doesn’t, the Democratic Party will remain split and she will lose the election.”

For now, at least, Harris’ lead in the polls suggests a lot of voters feel comfortable with what they know about where she stands on the issues they care about most, like abortion and the economy… and not being batshit crazy

- Town & Country magazine recounting the time RFK Jr. brought home the head of a beached whale in Massachusetts.

NEWS NEWS NEWS 

The Israeli military today said that it rescued a hostage who was taken by Hamas militants during their Oct. 7 surprise attack. The military said Qaid Farhan Alkadi, 52, was rescued from a tunnel “in a complex operation in the southern Gaza Strip” but didn’t offer specifics on how the operation went down.

Special counsel Jack Smith revised his indictment of Donald Trump’s election interference case, slimming down the allegations in response to the Supreme Court’s notorious ruling granting presidents sweeping executive immunity.

Trump unenthusiastically confirmed he’ll show up to the September 10 after reaching a deal with Dems on the parameters, but the Harris campaign suggested that he may have spoken too soon. That would be SAD!

Democrats on the state and national level are suing to block a pair of rules adopted by Georgia’s State Election Board that could be used by local officials who don’t want to certify election results. Now why in the world would this board — dominated by Trump’s allies — want to be able to delay election results?… We can’t imagine! Hear more about this on today’s episode of the What A Day podcast.

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