MSNBC Analyst Argues Kamala Harris is ‘Feeding’ Trump’s ‘Attack Line’ By Delaying Media Interview

MSNBC analyst Basil Smikle argued that by delaying a “sit-down” press interview Vice President Kamala Harris is “feeding” former President Donald Trump’s “attack line” that she is “not smart enough” and “she’s ducking the issues.”

Harris told journalists in Detroit three weeks ago that she had asked her team to schedule an interview by the end of the month. But with August closing out and no interview arranged, Trump is driving the issue as a means to undermine his opponent’s credibility.

On Tuesday’s Ana Cabrera Reports, host Jose Diaz-Balart presented a new Trump campaign email sent out that morning that criticized Harris for having not given an interview in the 37 days since she succeeded President Joe Biden as the Democratic nominee. Diaz-Balart added that Harris had, in fact, “taken questions from the press just not in a lengthy televised sit-down.”

He then asked his Smikle if he thought the interview mattered “to anyone other journalists.” Smikle, sat on panel, replied:

I do think it matters to some voters, but Vice President Harris has to be very intentional about what she does do. The biggest task at hand for her in this next 70 days is maintaining the momentum, get voters to trust her. She’s got to maintain that. She’s got to do this with a tremendous amount of intentionality. But I also acknowledge that this line of attack from Donald Trump with respect to her not having thus far done this sit-down debate is part of this larger strategy of seeding the ground with doubt.

If you think about the press conference where he talked about the debate, he also said that Vice President Kamala Harris didn’t want to debate him and that she wasn’t smart. So all of this is sort of feeding into this larger line of attack where he would say, and Republicans would say, that she’s not good at this, she’s not smart enough, that’s why she’s ducking the issues and ducking him. That’s clearly not the case, but it’s part of this larger strategy of his, to see the ground with that type of doubt and attack against her.

Watch above on MSNBC.

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