Jesse Waters, co-host of Fox News Channel’s “The Five,” recently got into a heated exchange with liberal panelist Jessica Tarlov when discussing concerns about the viability of Vice President Kamala Harris as a presidential candidate. As Waters was delivering a critical monologue toward Harris, Tarlov stepped in to defend the vice president, triggering an intense back-and-forth.
Waters pointed out that enthusiasm surrounding the Harris-Walz campaign seems to have tapered off since late summer. There was an initial bump of excitement in the polls surrounding Harris as she stepped up to lead the Democratic ticket as President Joe Biden withdrew from the race in July. However, as Harris has avoided the media and failed to address policy concerns substantively, her numbers seem to be falling.
“Her numbers are fading,” Waters said. “She peaked in August. Everybody knows that Nate Silver now gives Donald Trump a 62% chance of winning the Electoral College. I don’t care how much money she raises, not about his convention, but I don’t care how much money she raises. Hillary raised twice as much as Trump, and he smoked her.”
As the discussion occurred before the controversial ABC News debate last week, Waters alleged that Harris was taking drastic measures to digest her own policy platform. Pointing out that Harris lacks a thorough understanding of policy or what has transpired in her administration over the past several years, Waters painted her as an “opportunist” who is unprepared for the presidency.
“She’s reading these briefing books about policy because she doesn’t know what her policies are. That’s why she’s cramming, because she has no idea what happened the last four years and she has no idea what she’s supposed to say, because she doesn’t know, because she doesn’t have an opinion. She’s an opportunist. She just rode the machine to the top and got lucky because Joe crapped out,” he added.
“If the media is saying Jessica that she’s dodging scrutiny, they’re the ones who are supposed to scrutinize her,” Waters added, pointing out criticism that the media has been soft on Kamala Harris. Tarlov then jumped in, “Well they are.” In disbelief, Waters questioned, “How!?” Tarlov claimed media outlets were writing “junk pieces” about Harris.
Waters dismissed Tarlov’s assertion, stating, “They’re not writing junk pieces. They’re writing about how she’s a great cook and how she’s filled with joy. If you had a fair media, they’d be writing something about like only committing to one debate. Well, where are you? You’re a flip flopper. You don’t know what you believe. That’s how it would be in real life.”
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Watch Waters and Tarlov below:
The co-host quipped, further arguing against Tarlov, the lone dissenting liberal opinion on the show, “This is like a cook, complaining about the food you cooked it.” Waters maintained that the media’s role is to force politicians to be transparent, as conservatives argue they have done with incredible bias against former President Trump. “It’s their job to interview these people you don’t even hear them yelling, anything interesting when she’s going up the steps,” he concluded.
Note: The featured image is a screenshot from the embedded video.