Joe Scarborough Skewers Media Colleagues Who Still Insist Harris Has No Policies
By: Josh Fiallo (The Daily Beast)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Republicans have claimed Kamala Harris is yet to share her policy beliefs. Joe Scarborough says it's "absolutely insane" that some in the mainstream media still claim the same.
Published Sep. 23, 2024 2:51PM EDT MSNBC
Joe Scarborough has heard enough.
The typically cool-headed Morning Joe commentator went on a tirade Monday against his media colleagues who still parrot the GOP's favorite lie about Kamala Harris—that no one knows where she stands on any policy.
Scarborough singled out the The New York Times' Bret Stephens, who recently penned a column that claimed Harris spends too much time sharing her background and too little on answering questions about specific policies.
Scarborough told his MSNBC viewers that Stephen's claims, which others like Daniel Henninger of The Wall Street Journal have also shared, are "an absolute lie." He added that Stephens "obviously hasn't been watching the campaign."
"Do you have no shame?" Scarborough later asked of the pair of columnists. "Do you really have no shame?"
Scarborough said he's sick of the "false equivalency" between Trump, who often shares his broad policy beliefs without offering specifics, and Harris, who's been speaking at length about her policy plans in recent weeks.
Scarborough's wife and co-host, Mika Brzezinski, added that this discrepancy in expectations between the candidates doesn't only come from the "anti, anti-Trump" crowd, but also from those in the mainstream media.
Stephens argued in the Times last week that Harris too often pivots to speaking on her middle-class upbringing and not on policy specifics. He singled out her answers in interviews with CNN and a local Philadelphia news station, claiming they were "lighter than air."
Scarborough, himself a former GOP lawmaker, said that speaking about one's personal past is a typical pivot for politicians in any party or race. He added that Harris' occasional question dodging shouldn't be criticized at the same level as Trump's anti-Democratic rhetoric, like when he asserted he'd be a dictator on day one and seek to prosecute Joe Biden.
"Nobody has ever mocked a politician for actually talking about their background and how it influences their policy," Scarborough said.
Scarborough said he finds it particularly frustrating to see Harris' policy answers criticized when her responses are much more substantive—and coherent—than those given by Trump when he's asked.
The Morning Joe host later commented that the U.S. has "officially entered silly season" in this election cycle.
"We've officially entered silly season when people I have read and respected all across the ideological spectrum are shaming themselves, trying to flatten this race out and trying to make Donald Trump seem normal next to Kamala Harris."
Stephanie Ruhle lit out after Republican moderate both sideser Bret Stephens on Bill Maher's show Friday night.
‘We Don’t Live in Nirvana’: MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle Passionately Argues Press Doesn’t Need ‘Substantive Answers’ From Kamala Harris
“It’s not too much to ask, Kamala, say, are you for a Palestinian state if Hamas is going to run that state? Yes or no,” he said.
“Okay, let’s say you don’t like her answer,” Ruhle replied. “Are you going to vote for Donald Trump?”
“No, I’m not. I’m just said I’m not going to vote for him,” Stephens answered.
“Kamala Harris isn’t running for perfect. She’s running against Trump,” Ruhle continued. “We have two choices. And so there are some things you might not know her answer to. And in 2024, unlike 2016, for a lot of the American people, we know exactly what Trump will do, who he is and the kind of threat he is to democracy.”
When Stephens argued that voters don’t know Harris’s answer on these substantive questions, Ruhle replied about Trump, “But you know his answer to everything!”
“But people also are expected to have some idea of what the program is of the person you’re supposed to vote for. You’re just not supposed to say, well, you have to vote for Y because X is this, that and the other,” Stephens replied. “I don’t think it’s a lot to ask her to sit down for a real interview as opposed to a puff piece in which she describes, like her, her feelings of growing up in Oakland with nice lawns.”
Ruhle again dismissed the idea that it might be useful for the Democratic candidate to be asked specific questions or give specific answers.
“I would just say to that, when you move to Nirvana, give me your real estate broker’s number and I’ll be your next door neighbor,” she said mockingly. “We don’t live there.”
The Mainstream Press now views it's job as suppressing information from voters. Not sure how a democracy survives when the institution whose job it is to inform voters decides their team's rulers really shouldn't ever share information with voters.
that they should normalize Donald Trump for the sake of a "horse race" election.
How does asking Kamala Harris to explain her own policies normalize Donald Trump?
It's not a horse race election, it's a "vibe" election.
Lets say Harris has a strategy of being deliberately a little vague in order to try and maximize her vote. Thats too damn bad. The only people , at this point, that are complaining about that are the ones who are either for Trump or dont care either way. Harris' sole job right now is to win this election.
As for "normalizing" Trump, it happens every single day. He says bizarre things every day, and rarely do they make the evening news or the front page of the New York Times. When he called a couple weeks ago for Liz Cheney to face a "military tribunal" it didnt even make most mainstream news.
All of our media is well aware that Trump is a traitor based on his schemes to overturn the 2020 election. Do you ever hear specifically about that in mainstream media today? No. He should never ever be allowed to have a news conference or interview where he is not asked about that.
Lol. You know you are equating the media's job with Harris' job right? I guess kudos to you for not even pretending the media is anything other than the PR wing of the Harris campaign.
Goebbels would be envious of the democrats control of the media.
Considering what he is and what he has done the media has been incredibly fair to Donald Trump.
Donald Trump is not relevant to the discussion of it being the media's job to ask Harris what her plans are if she wins.
Of course he is. She is trying , to an extent, to be "all things to all people" in her effort to win the election. The election against Trump.
Again, Harris can do or say what she wants. Helping her is not the medias jobs, despite what you and her public relations team on morning Joe think.
If she's refusing to answer questions, it's the media's job to report that she's refusing to answer questions or divulge her plans.
“She is trying , to an extent, to be "all things to all people" ”
That’s an idiotic approach, but hey, she wants to come across as fake and phony that’s her deal. Nobody knows what her policy positions are other than she was raised middle class and her hardworking neighbors had nice lawns and children of the community are children of the community. She’s a fucking joke.
She is a normal politician who is presidential, intelligent, energetic, youthful, experienced and will work for the people rather than for herself.
And I think DP provided a fine way to complete my comment so I will reuse his post:
I could not disagree with your opinion more.
What part or sentence is not accurate ?
And apparently cannot offer a reason as to why.
Harris won't sit down for an 'actual interview' and trump won't shut his fucking mouth, interview or not.
Kamala Harris has been given a sacred and solemn task - keeping the traitor/lunatic Donald Trump out of the White House for the next four years. That is her mission. Her mission is not to satisfy reporters gotcha questions.
Harris has a very devious and scary past. Her core values have not changed a bit from her extreme left wing past. Don't let her wishy-washy flip-flopping fool you.
Harris supported entering gun owners' homes to inspect firearms (americanmilitarynews.com)
Versus 34 times convicted felon, 24 times accused sexual predator, accused rapist, man who ran half a dozen businesses into bankruptcy, former President who lied about a deadly pandemic, lied about the results of the 2020 election and incited an attempted insurrection that led to the deaths of several people and has seen dozens and dozens of people convicted of felonies against our nation, has cheated on all three of his wives, paid porn stars to keep quiet during his campaign for President, has been impeached by congress not just once but twice...but it's Harris that has the "very devious and scary past". What the actual fuck. Did a bunch of Americans lose their heads and not know about it? Because it seem's like some pretty serious brainless bullshit is going on in a desperate effort to support a known liar and conman and yet they seem to be fucking proud of themselves. Are we sure we didn't accidently slip through some Twilight Zone portal and we're just living out the last few minutes of an apocalyptic episode?
It's sure been an alternate Bizarro World it seems when it comes to the never ending PD&D+delusion and defense of the indefensible.
I'll bet those Black journalist left satisfied last week when she summarized her economic policies with:
“My plan for the economy includes what I imagine and believe and call an opportunity economy. What we can do to grow an opportunity economy. Where all people have access to the resources to compete. To apply their incredible work ethic, their ambition, their aspirations and their dreams and actually not just get by but get ahead.”
Isn't that what we have now? an economy where if you work hard and make good choices you can not only break even but get ahead?
The left wants equal outcomes for everyone, which is not possible when you're dealing with humans.
How horrible
It is indeed impossible. It is also undesirable. On top of that, it makes zero sense. Your view of 'the left' appears to be quite cynical.
'The left' more accurately wants equal opportunity. That is also impossible, but there is plenty of room to raise the bar and give people more opportunity for education, employment, and entrepreneurship.
Lol.
That's it - equal opportunity. More opportunities .....how horrible,,,.
Honestly, that sounds like the kind of thing Republicans used to say.
Nice rant Joe. But I noticed you didn't say what any of her policies actually were, just like she does.
She's actually been far more specific than dirty Donald.
Here's how specific Donald has been:
“You wouldn’t have had inflation. You wouldn’t have had any inflation because inflation was caused by their bad energy problems. Now they’ve gone back to the Trump thing because they need the votes. They’re drilling now because they had to go back because gasoline was going up to 7, 8, 9 dollars a barrel.”
So, the apparent "specific" is going back to the "Trump thing". So very technical.
Trump claimed that immigrants took “110%” of all the jobs created during the Biden presidency. While I'm sure that makes perfect sense to any Trump supporter, to those of us who like facts, 110% is not only obviously unachievable, but the number of jobs actually taken by immigrants isn't even close to half let alone 110%. But don't let that stop the lie train, Trump supporters don't give a shit about truth so none of this is surprising. Half of America, the liberals, Democrats and progressives, are in a battle of wits against their opponents, and they just found out that their opponents are completely unarmed. The only problem is they don't want to just cancel the other half that have no wits and are dumber than a bag of rocks to fail, they know they have to make sure those morons are also taken care of. So, for intelligent Americans, it's a no-win situation where they have to support lazy ignorant racist assholes who hate them just so that they themselves don't look like the same bigoted pieces of shit who support dirty Donald.
Trump was asked what he would do about child care for working families. He answered with something about tariffs.
When he was asked about how he would bring manufacturing jobs back to Michigan he talked about nuclear war.
No joke.
Joe Scarborough Skewers Media Colleagues Who Still Insist Harris Has No Policies (thedailybeast.com)
Exactly, whatabout Donald.
In a race where you have a choice between only two people, that’s a reasonable approach.
That's the thing, to understand anything Trump says, it's not about needing specifics, you need a "Trump whisperer" who can "read between the lines" and tell you what Trump meant by his cryptic rambling narrative. He relies on all the rightwing media outlets to tell his supporters what they want to hear regardless of what actually exits his mouth.
What’s a reasonable choice? I’m not and haven’t ever voted for Donald.
I notice rather than talk about her policies you divert to trump
Makes me think of Key & Peele and their President Obama anger translator - Luther.
Sounds like a great comedy sketch/routine - a trump translator 'trump whisperer' - lol
I wasn't suggesting that.
Some people always vote based on party. Others vote based on specific issues.
But other people - I am like this a lot - look at the whole candidate and unless they are genuinely inspired by one of them, often pick the lesser of two evils, or the more competent of two mediocre candidates, or the least imperfect candidate, if you see what I mean.
And I think that for just about anybody that might seriously be a presidential candidate at this moment, we could find flaws in them, but they're still an easy choice over Trump. So I have criticisms of Harris, but I could find imperfections in anyone. I don't think I've even heard of a presidential candidate that would be worse than Trump.
Agree.
Trump Unleashes Rant Against Bill Maher, Stephanie Ruhle, and Bret Stephens: ‘They Can’t Stop Talking About Me!’
Trump Unleashes Rant Against Bill Maher, Stephanie Ruhle, and Bret Stephens: ‘They Can’t Stop Talking About Me!’ (menzmag.com)
(AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
Early Saturday morning, former President Donald Trump took to his Truth Social platform to launch a fiery rant, starting with an attack on HBO’s Real Time host Bill Maher, and quickly expanding to target MSNBC host Stephanie Ruhle and New York Times columnist Bret Stephens.
Just hours after Maher’s late Friday night show aired, featuring Ruhle and Stephens as guests, Trump expressed his outrage over what he perceived as excessive focus on him during the discussion. “The ratings-challenged Bill Maher, on his increasingly boring show on HBO, is really having a hard time coping with TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME. He is a befuddled mess, sloppy and tired, and every conversation, with B and C list guests, seems to start with, or revert back to ME!” Trump wrote .
Trump then singled out Ruhle, calling her a “dumb as a rock bimbo” and took a swipe at Stephens, labeling him a “Trump-hating loser” who appeared “confused and unsure of himself.” Trump’s criticism of Stephens seemed particularly pointed as he claimed, “Steven’s [sic] should find himself another line of work because I am driving the FAILING New York Times absolutely crazy.”
In typical Trump fashion, he then veered off-topic, criticizing the New York Times for its past coverage of him, referencing the paper’s apology to readers following the 2016 election. “It is very hard, perhaps impossible, for a writer to write well of me without suffering the wrath of the degenerate editors who, with a push from the top, have gone insane.”
He concluded his rant with a scathing attack on the newspaper, suggesting it had lost all credibility. “The FAILING New York Times is a badly run ‘newspaper’ that has totally lost its way. Put it to sleep!” he added .
Trump’s post illustrates his ongoing frustration with media figures who criticize him, particularly those who discuss his influence even after his presidency. As always, he did not shy away from personal attacks or broad condemnations, further igniting his long-standing feud with major media outlets and commentators.
Ah that's who I was thinking of - Ruhle - the 'dumb as a rock bimbo' - this was right after Taylor's endorsement of Kamala - I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT
IT'S NOT FAIR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! EVERYONE IS AGAINST ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The guy has been putting himself in front of cameras for years, and the people who talk about him are the ones with a problem?
"Irrational" is not a strong enough word for how broken this guy's brain is.