During a recent segment on CNN’s “Outfront,” CNN Political Analyst and New York Times National Politics Reporter Astead Herndon claimed that Vice President Kamala Harris had previously tried to “appease the left” in the 2020 race. However, Herndon suggested that Harris is running a much different campaign as the Democratic Party’s presumptive presidential candidate in light of President Biden dropping out of the race.
CNN Political Commentator and former Trump White House Communications Director Alyssa Farah Griffin discussed the topic, suggesting that Harris is focusing on a much more centrist campaign. Following Biden’s announcement that he would not accept the Democratic Party’s nomination, many have turned their attention to Harris’ past rhetoric, which has been criticized as progressive and radical.
Griffin said that Kamala Harris has defied expectations that she would campaign on a “progressive-left” agenda, opting to be more of a “centrist Democrat.” She said, “She caught the Trump campaign flat-footed because I think they were expecting progressive-left Kamala Harris, somebody who supported the Green New Deal or somebody who ran away from her law enforcement credentials. And she is running a general election campaign. She is running as a centrist Democrat.”
The former member of the Trump administration continued, “Her message, if you watch, she gives the same stump speech every time she speaks, which works in a three-month race, she’s talking about paid family leave, rebuilding the middle class. It’s an economics message, a hint of reproductive rights, and then character over a criminal. That’s a message that resonates. She’s not going through a litany of left-wing priorities, and I don’t think that’s what they expected from her.”
Herndon added to Griffin’s statement, “That’s where she’s most comfortable, where she is right now. She was uncomfortable four years ago when she was trying to appease the left.” Earlier in the segment, the panel discussed the bump in Harris’ polling numbers versus Trump’s, where the two are virtually tied. David Axelrod, a former senior adviser to Barrack Obama, discussed the opportunities and challenges Harris faces.
“Well, I think it’s real. The question is, is it sufficient?” Axelrod positied. “She’s beginning to coalesce the the the Democratic base that helped elect Biden four years ago, and that Democrats need to win national elections, and that includes enthusiasm and participation and support from younger voters, from the African American community, from Hispanic voters, she’s doing better than Joe Biden was those voters were drifting away from him, which accounted for a lot of his problems,” he continued.
However, he noted that, as it stands in the polls today, she would likely lose by substantial margins against former President Donald Trump. “But if the election were today, she’d still lose, and she’d probably lose by a significant margin in the Electoral College, because Democrats have to be ahead in the national poll to win, because of the way population is distributed around the country,” he added.
Watch the CNN segment below:
Note: The featured image is a screen shot from the embedded video.
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