Newsmax political analyst Mark Halperin argued on Thursday that Vice President Kamala Harris’ Wednesday Fox News interview will likely have no effect on the election.
Harris appeared on Fox News’ “Special Report with Bret Baier” for her first formal interview on the network, where Baier challenged the vice president on the border crisis and her plans to move the country “forward” as president. Halperin, on “Wake Up America,” described Harris’ performance as “weak,” but asserted that he has seen limited coverage of the interview in swing states, indicating it will be “probably a nonevent.”
“I looked at a lot of news in the battleground states today, and it’s barely mentioned. So what I really think is it’s probably a nonevent. You know, we can all analyze it. You can listen to people say it was a triumph,” Halperin said. “You can listen to people say it was a car crash. I think in the end it’s a nonevent because what matters is an impact on the voters and what they hear about it. And I don’t see much again in the seven states that matter.”
“In terms of the interview itself, I think the highlight for her was being feisty and separating herself a little bit from [President] Joe Biden, saying, I think, under-covered so far, that her administration would ‘not be a continuation’ of his,” he continued. “That’s a pretty big break, at least symbolically.”
Harris previously told “The View” that nothing “comes to mind” when asked how she would govern differently from Biden.
READ: CNN’s Van Jones Claims Harris ‘Came Out Unscathed’ From Fox News Interview
“I think her evasiveness, her failure to address the tough questions that were asked on issues like immigration, and her saying, ‘I’ll follow the law’ on several issues rather than saying what her actual position was,” Halperin added. “I thought, if you’re a voter who thinks she’s vague, she’s not offering explanations and she’s just attacking Donald Trump. I think … that made it a weak interview.”
Trump currently has narrow leads over Harris in six of the seven swing states, with the vice president only slightly leading in Wisconsin, according to RealClearPolling averages.
Former President Bill Clinton’s one-time pollster Doug Schoen on Wednesday asserted the interview indicated that the “Harris campaign really doesn’t have a closing message or strategy.”
“I don’t think it helped at all. I think she felt she’d reach some swing voters,” Schoen added. “But to me, the absence of clear answers, the real sense of, you know, confusion to perfectly logical questions that Bret asked, to me suggests that it underscored all of the issues and concerns that few undecided swing voters have. Don’t think it helped a bit.”
CNN’s Van Jones asserted Thursday that Harris “did a magnificent job” in the interview, but that it was “an inkblot test.”
“If you like Kamala, you’re going to like it more, if you don’t, you’re going to like it less,” Jones said.
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First published by the Daily Caller News Foundation.