96 Comments

Chris, I usually agree with you on most issues. However, and this is a big however, when VP Harris does a press conference or msm interview she will not get the same slack that Trump has been given. So I don't think it is unreasonable to allow her to pick the time, place and outlet that gets it.

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Trump gets his butt kissed as he projectile vomits lies. No one from the Democratic side is treated with the same dainty and tentative style. What is wrong with this picture?

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I, for one, have not felt a dire need for Kamala Harris to do a formal press conference. I don’t know how much we actually learn from them, anyway. She’s been very busy putting herself out there. And selecting a running mate.

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Chris: her timetable does not need to be your timetable. Her strategy does not need to be in accord with your desire for punditry fodder. She has not yet had a press conference - oh the horror. Hergoal is to defeat Trump and she is working her best to do so.

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Chris,

All excellent points that I agree with.

However.

We're now experiencing events that are unparalleled in modern history, and we're not even at the three-week mark yet. While Harris may have reservations about doing press conferences in general, I do believe that she'll eventually have some. I also have no problem with her riding (and enjoying) the very enthusiastic momentum that the Harris-Walz ticket is enjoying. Let her ride it into the convention. She already committed to holding a post-convention presser. As a journalist, I can understand your desire to have her nail down some of her positions now, but I also think that the vast majority of plain, ordinary, everyday voters (such as the ones flocking to her rallies) are just happy to have her running and aren't really sweating the details at this point. Hopefully her positions will get better defined during the convention, and when she has the presser afterwards the questions asked by reporters will be more specific (instead of random generalizations).

I also think there's a significant double-standard with the main-stream media. Today's farce of a press conference by Trumpty-Dumpty will be reported without any focus on his rambling disjointed "answers" and his quite obvious declining cognitive abilities. (In the past you've politely asked us to refrain from using the term "dementia" to describe Trump's mental decline, but I respectfully request that that diagnosis be returned to the discussion mix.) Yet pretty much every reporter - especially those from Fox "News" are chomping at the bit to get Harris to do a presser.

As another comment mentioned - CHILL, BRO

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The CIA and DOD demand that our president be one who can be manipulated into supporting the brain dead Ukraine Proxy War . They are using the MSM a medium which they control, to hype and lie about Kamala Harris and Tim Walz.

"The Last Honest Man": James Risen on How Former Senator Frank Church Exposed CIA, FBI & NSA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWWMg2ArEYc

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Chris, didn't you just say in one of your posts yesterday that she hadn't given a press conference yet, but you thought after she got done with this current swing state tour she would give one, say, in two weeks & that would be good timing?

Meanwhile, today is the first time Trump has spoken officially since she was made the nominee 16 days ago, and all his fat ass is doing is playing golf at MAL. That "press conference" today was a joke. Even the professional pundits said they turned it off after 40 minutes, they couldn't take it any longer.

The sight of those American flags behind him amidst all that gold crap made me sick. Did anyone learn anything about him from that farce?

She was with the UAW Union today, talking with regular folks, getting their endorsements.

Press conferences are overrated.

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It’s 2016 all over again with media coverage of Trump. No pointing out his incoherent non answer jibberish. Maybe they’re afraid they’ll be recipients of his retribution . How dare they call this traitor Mr. President.

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I can't get too worked up over Harris not yet doing a formal interview. As time passes, I will see it differently. Right now, she is taking advantage of her positive run and getting established in the campaign before the opposition can try to take her down. Interview(s) in good time.

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I'd go even farther on Pelosi: She played her cards perfectly; and I mean that literally. She wasn't pimping for anyone and her sole agenda was electoral victory, at both the top and down ballot. She had half the Democratic world calling her with the same message: "For God's sake, DO SOMETHING!" She had to titrate her approach to Biden with extreme care -- it was like an Olympic routine on the balance beam. One toe wrong, one over-rotation and she would have lost all traction.

She had to WAIT, time it, build it, gather it. She knew she had to give Biden time to process -- knew that he was proud and, most important, human. She also knew that the time for him to go was AFTER the RNC, never before. So she kept one eye on the clock and worked it to perfection. She knew when to be quiet and private, and when to begin raising her voice just enough.

The end result has been far, far better than any of us expected or had a right to expect. Trump's shooting bump and RNC bump (which, of course, he himself gutted) were neutered, JD Vance gifted, and the Harris campaign launched without a hitch and with a surge we Democrats didn't know we had in us. Pelosi had all sorts of ways to go wrong -- and got it exactly right.

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founding

RIGHT.

No actually.

She's trying to win an election that 3 weeks ago was unwinnable. And she has pulled off a small miracle so far, which may (fingers crossed) turn into a large miracle on November 5th.

There's plenty of time to talk with the press. But today, she is talking with the people. The people are who counts in elections. I'm gonna give her a pass on this.

But I am all for trump having as many press conferences and interviews as possible. The more the merrier. Keep on speaking DonOLD. You're doing a great job.

Best press conference EVER SIR!

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It was un-winnable because of Pres. Biden’s advanced age. She just happens to be two decades younger than that candidate. Democrats were begging for anyone other than Pres. Biden to win. People act as if she had some grueling campaign to win the nomination.

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In my working days I spent a quarter-century interviewing people and another quarter-century being interviewed. So I know something about the game. Thus far VP Harris has run an absolutely brilliant campaign. That campaign hasn't seemed to yet need Chris & cohorts. A lot of us who are interested in saving the country are just fine with the state of the Harris campaign! Massaging the collective egos of media folks will happen one of the days. Meanwhile, the Harris news conference situation seems aimed at clickbait but appears to not bother many of the readers here.

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Your far stronger point would have been the Democratic Party’s support for a free press in contrast to the GOP endangering your life by referring to you as an enemy of the people for maybe 500 times?

Perhaps you felt a bit of pique that she said end of the month, which wasn’t soon enough? As you well know, there’s a lot of political history going on here with this campaign, and the level of campaign re-organization must be extremely intense.

I’m willing to gamble that there will be a press conference before then and commitments for one on one interviews by the end of the month.

And I have exactly zero doubt that she will handle all of those with extreme skill.

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A very key issue is Israel-Gaza and getting her policy statement nailed down right in a VERY fluid/volatile environment. She can’t be too hard on Biden’s record and our ally Israel and she must speak her truth. Michigan’s 200K Arab voters matter- big time. Tightrope? That defines tight. Chris, give it a break but you’re not wrong to press for the free press.

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Chris: As a former journalist, I sympathize with your desire for Harris to do a freewheeling press conference. As a former PR professional, I would advise her to do a press conference when she has talking points that advance her campaign. Answering "gotcha" questions like, "Did you notice Biden's decline?" do not advance her campaign. If she says "yes," then the follow-up is "why didn't you do something?" If she says "no," then the follow-up is "how could you be so unobservant?" She's currently got great momentum, getting great crowds and great news coverage as she holds rallies in the 7 swing states. She doesn't NEED a press conference right now to advance her campaign. The DNC begins in 10 days. A few days after her acceptance speech on the 22nd and the end of the convention, there will probably be a window for a freewheeling press conference, for her to look presidential. Her media advisors will want to anticipate in advance what the headlines coming out of the press conference are likely to be. BTW, Trump held a press conference today because he was feeling left out of news coverage.

Chris, I'm sure you would not post what I did: "Trump Campaign Implodes As Kamala Harris Becomes Social Media Phenom." https://jimbuie.substack.com/p/kamala-harris-has-big-mo-will-it

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Stock market crash, high inflation, war in Europe and a war in Middle East and you believe that asking the VP "Did you notice Biden's decline?" is a gotcha question??

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Yes, it sure as hell is. Either answer will be snipped out and spliced with lots of lies and propaganda to advance the cause of installing the Mango Mussolini into the White House again.

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Asking about the health and capacity of the President is normal jogging. Lying about Biden, removing him as a candidate and then keeping him in office is the height of hypocrisy

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Well I hope that you like the return of President Trump. After all, he is such a paragon of virtue. A man who never lies, not.

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You seem to be incapable of answer a question without defaulting to Trump. Hiding and lying about the health of our President is wrong.

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Ms. Leva - It seems that you and I are at an impasse. We will have to agree not to agree. I will say a few things in closing.

During the June debate between Biden and Trump, Biden’s performance was the worst that I have ever seen for such an event. It was worse that Vice Admiral James Stockdale, and that was bad! Trump lied constantly, but Biden’s illness and head filled with snot, contributed to his abysmal performance. After that happened, he should have immediately made appearances of late-night TV, and at least one of the early morning Sunday interviews shows, in order to rapidly push back on the after-effects of that bad debate. That debate reinforced existing fears of a candidate who was too old to be considered for a second term. Aging is a process that comes for us all, and at age 80 it can accelerate rapidly. I have always admired Biden, but it was time for him to cease his candidacy.

In this election, we are faced with a binary choice: the Democrat VP Harris or Donald Trump. In my opinion, VP Harris will continue the policies of the current Biden-Harris administration with more physical vigor and better communication skills than Biden could have brought to the table. I think that she will be more willing to NOT back Israel carte-blanche if they persist in the wholesale slaughter of Palestinian civilians, but that is just my opinion.

On the other-side, Mr. Trump is a man who incited a mob to attack our capitol, to prevent the certification of an election that he lost. That mob was incited by Mr. Trump during their attack, to the point where members of that mob sought to murder Vice-President Pence and Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi. If he loses the election in November, I expect that he will incite further violence. I hope that I am wrong about this, but I would not count on it.

Other things that we have learned about Mr. Trump since 2020, include that he was found liable for sexual assault of E. Jean Carroll in a New York department store- Mr. Trump forced his fingers into Ms. Carroll's vagina against her will. Two different juries unanimously awarded her millions of dollars of damages. His company was found criminally liable for a fraudulent scheme to avoid payment of taxes. The CFO of Trump, Inc. was also found criminally liable during the same scheme. Further Mr. Trump’s company was found to have committed income tax and insurance fraud and was forced to pay over $400 million dollars in penalties. In one of the four criminal trials that Mr. Trump is facing he has been convicted of 34 felonies.

Speaking of not knowing the true state of a President’s health, in 2020 Donald Trump tested positive for Covid, but then went ahead and attended a scheduled debate with Joe Biden without disclosing his illness. During his presidency, Mr. Trump was flown to Walter Reed hospital for a medical procedure. He later said that a colonoscopy was performed. Being a man over 50, I have had colonoscopies, I have never heard of someone having a non-emergency “colonoscopy” that requires being medevacked to a hospital on a weekend. That explanation does not seem true to me.

I will be voting for VP Harris and also working on her campaign. I believe that if Mr. Trump returns to office, he will force the Ukraine to surrender to the Soviet/Russian aggression. Mr. Trump wants Putin to win and for the west to lose. That would be a tragedy. There are other possibilities about a second Trump presidency that I will not elaborate on here.

I’ll venture that you and I differ on many or perhaps all of the opinions that I have expressed here. Having said that, you seemed to be seeking what I really thought. I have provided it. Have a good day and a nice life. Best regards.

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Harris delaying having a press conference is IMHO an excellent tactic. Kind of like TRUMP sending AD-VANCE out to "test" fire attacks, letting him see what works and what doesn't, before TRUMP comes out of his FOXhole. HARRIS can test what remarks score and rate with the electorate and tailor her responses to the NEWS media appropriately. Not unlike Taylor Swift testing her ERAS tour.

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"ADVANCE" is pretty good, but I like Shay-D Vance. ;--)

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While I do see your point?/ Why give Trump camp fodder ahead of time?

Perhaps the 4 mo strategy is being timelines out as if this were an investigation into winning?

Trump hasn’t done a lot of things too.

1) He reads off a teleprompter and ad that is the “ coordination of one”.( easier to organize, just need a writer and camera person.

2) He holds questions at Mar Lago?

3) he’s done very few rally’s in the last month( no more outside venues for security reasons?)

4) 3 debates? Fox is an apprentice show. Not a valid news station.

I’m not a fan of answering news reporters questions. To

Me it’s not indicative of a person that can lead as President.

Unless( you bold face lie or refuse to answer every question.)

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"Unless (you bold face lie or refuse to answer every question.)" I agree - that is what Trump did today. while the press asked no hard questions, called none of his numerous lies and in general kissed his fat behind.

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Aug 8·edited Aug 9

The main people that care about how often a presidential candidate (or sitting president for that matter) have a press conference are journalists.

Maybe they feel like they are being ignored?? I'm not a journalist so I can't say.

I can say this..it's pretty weird.

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I care about it. I am an Independent voter. As o& today I don’t have a clue where Harris stands. Yes, I can read the platitudes on their website but that’s all marketing jargon. I know all I need to know about Trump. I will never support him. I was also not going to support Biden for various reasons. If Harris wants my vote she needs to convince me she’s the right person to lead our country. I SO want her to earn my vote, but I will not vote for someone because I intensely dislike the other candidate. Now, in full disclosure my vote frankly will not make any difference as I live in a solid Blue state but for others like me in toss-up states it could very well make a difference.

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Aug 9·edited Aug 9

Are you counting the days like Chris did in his sub-title??

NO ONE does this except journalists.

She will do a press conference when it's the best time to do a press conference. 10 days before your convention is NOT the right time.

The middle of August is NOT the right time. VP Harris is running a fantastic campaign so far. Virtually NO missteps. She has ALL the momentum and positive vibes.

Trump did a (I guess you can call it a presser) today, because he's desperate and flailing. It was a mitigated disaster.

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I never said I wouldn’t vote for Harris, I just said I want to hear where she stands on the issues. As I’ve said in a later comment on Chris’ Mail Bag (hope you read it) that when push comes to shove, I may well vote for Harris, but I will continue to push for her to address where she stands (and, as I also said in that later comment, I capitulated that only 19 days is really too soon to complain she hasn’t yet). I just want to know what I’m getting, if and when I vote for her, as opposed to what I’m not getting, which as you well pointed out is very clear.

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No miss steps because she hasn’t taken any steps. I agree Trump was a disaster. I don’t care when Harris meets the press but she had better do it and not just token interviews. She will never convince Independent la (or at least this one) without them.

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My guess is that you will never vote for VP Harris no matter what. Either you are riding with the Republicans and waiting for your next tax cut, or you really like the way the GOP does Gay-bashing, or you really believe that women are put on this earth solely to birth and raise children, whatever the reason, you are voting for the GOP. - It is in your blood.

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Correction: I do care when she meets the press because she needs to not wait until October. If she has one the end of this month, as she’s promised,and it’s a probing interview/presser that’s good for a start. But it’s just a start. The public knows very little about her except what she campaigned on in her previous bid for the nomination and that was a little troubling for me.

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Her policy positions are the Biden-Harris administrations policy positions. If you are troubled by Harris's miss-steps during the 2020 primaries and by inference find Trump more comforting, then stop pretending like you are still making up your mind. Say that you are a Trumper and be done with it. Stop this falsetto, "my vote is independent" crap.

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Just because someone does not support Harris or Biden does not make them a “Trumper”. That’s frankly pretty naive to believe that just because someone is not in love with your candidate makes them a “Trumper”. I did not vote for him in 2020 and had no intention of voting for him this year. I also did not vote for Biden in 2020 and had no intention of voting for him in 2024. I was glad to see him back out. I just want Harris to tell me where she stands, not her supporters. To do otherwise is to blindly vote. She has a little less than 90 days to do that, which is plenty of time. I think interviews and press conferences, as opposed to written speeches, tell much more about a candidate and their beliefs. For example, the recent Trump interview at NABJ told SO much. Unlike some of his other interviews, which all became derailed and deranged, this one demonstrated his outright hostility towards blacks, and frankly anyone that is not a “Trumper”. It was also the first time that the interviewer really kept pushing. I am not expecting Harris to have a performance at all like that. But there are questions about her past that should be addressed. Yes, they are predominantly being raised by the right but they are valid questions. She needs to account for herself. I want to see how she handles herself under pressure.

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Aug 9·edited Aug 9

I find your position really strange. Saying that nothing can be known about Kamala Harris's position on a whole set of issues is just false.

Saying that you need a press conference with Harris to be able to make an informed decision about whether to vote Harris or Trump is extremely strange to me. Are you actually suggesting that abortion restriction, mass deportation of people with the aid of the national guard, refusing the accept the results of a legitimate election, huge tax cuts for the richest people and corporations, pardoning of 6th January people attacking police officers (all things Trump have personally promise) are all acceptable to you if Harris does not give a press conference you are satisfied with? But if she does, you will vote for her? I mean, you have the absolute right to stand on any side on these issues, but the stakes just do not seem to be comparable to me.

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Mr. JimB is a Republican. He will vote for a Democrat when hell freezes over, if even then. GOP is in that man's DNA, and he is not gonna change.

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The CIA and DOD demand that our president be one who can be manipulated into supporting the brain dead Ukraine Proxy War . They are using the MSM a medium which they control, to hype and lie about Kamala Harris and Tim Walz.

"The Last Honest Man": James Risen on How Former Senator Frank Church Exposed CIA, FBI & NSA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWWMg2ArEYc

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And how does holding an adversarial news conference allow you to learn any of that? How much did you learn from Trump's presser today, except that he is a consummate liar and the press is too timid to call him on ANY OF HIS LIES.

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I totally agree she needs to do a presser. You can't call your opponent 'chicken' in one area but run to the henhouse on something else.

And, seriously, I would think she should WANT to do one. It will be a lot easier than the debate(s) with Orange Face muttering and doing 'monkey shines' while you're talking about the border.....

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Well today for example, Trump gets his butt kissed as he projectile vomits lies. No one from the Democratic side is treated with the same dainty and tentative style. Are you frigging kidding me?

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Too bad Nancy Pelosi isn’t a younger woman. She would give Julius one hell of a run for his money.

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