Kamala Harris roasted in New York Times report over TV interview performances: ‘Nervousness that is palpable’

A New York Times report published Thursday conceded that Vice President Kamala Harris’ major “weakness” is her television interviews, where she’s been panned for her “word salad” responses.

The criticism of Harris’ rare TV sit-downs was laid bare in an article titled “Harris Has a Lot of Strengths. Giving Interviews Isn’t One of Them” by Times reporter Rebecca Davis O’Brien.

O’Brien wrote the Democratic presidential nominee’s one-on-one interview appearances have “long been a weakness in her political arsenal.”

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“She often winds her way slowly toward an answer, leaning on jargon and rehearsed turns of phrase, using language that is sometimes derided as ‘word salad’ but might be better described as a meringue,” the reporter said.

Harris has largely shied away from unscripted media appearances since she jumped to the top of the Democratic ticket. She’s also been hard to reach for White House photographers.

In fact, the vice president is on track to grant the fewest interviews of any major party’s presidential nominee ever. Her lack of availability is a “calculation” made by her campaign, O’Brien writes.

O’Brien gave high marks to Harris for her debating and campaigning skills, but wrote the veep exudes a “nervousness that is palpable” when she sits across from an interviewer. 

The reporter noted that Harris’ career as a prosecutor has made her more adept at asking questions than being grilled like a defendant on the stand. 

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The vice president’s anxiety towards the media “stems not from lack of preparation or curiosity but from a fear of saying the wrong thing,” O’Brien wrote.

Harris avoided TV interviews for an entire year following a “disastrous” one with NBC’s Lester Holt when she bumbled through a response to a question about the border crisis.

Dan Morain, a journalist who covered Harris’ career since 2010 and wrote a biography about her in 2020, told The Times she “can be very engaging, very quick; she’s witty, a lot of eye contact.”

But throughout her time in politics she’s never gone “out of her way” to speak with the press. “Why would she take the risk?” he asked.

O’Brien wrote that when Harris does an interview, she sticks to a set of rehearsed talking points but can slip into “a sea of excess verbiage.”

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“Her first answer is often the most unsteady, a discursive journey to the point at hand. Like all politicians, she sometimes answers the question she would prefer to address, rather than the one actually asked of her — but not always artfully,” the reporter observed.

“She tends to muddy clear ideas with words or phrases that do not have a precise meaning.”