Kamala Harris, Time cowl lady: Is her rise in opposition to Trump fueled by an limitless media honeymoon?

Norman Ray

International Courant

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OutKick author Mary Katharine Ham and Democratic strategist Tim Hogan analyze JD Vance’s criticism of Harris’ vice presidential nominee Tim Walz’s army file.

It is all concerning the environment.

A phrase not usually related to presidential politics — extra with late-night events and a bong — is now the one one which issues. Not less than, in the event you’re Kamala Harris.

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She’s on the duvet of Time — in an admiring sketch that makes it seem to be she’s already president — for “the quickest change in temper in American political historical past.”

DESPITE RUNNING MATE’S ULTRA-LIBERAL RECORD, MOST OF THE MEDIA IS JUMPING ON THE WALLPAPER

Is that every one it takes to win? It doesn’t harm that the vice chairman has risen within the polls, raised a ton of cash, turn out to be a cultural phenomenon, had a comparatively profitable rollout by Tim Walz, and is getting a lift from the Democratic conference.

However will it’s a sugar rush after that? Will her numbers drop again to the place they had been within the face of Republican assaults?

Donald Trump appears off steadiness in the interim, his assaults on Harris are having no impact and he overtly longs for Joe Biden, after years of getting ready for his struggle in opposition to the frail 81-year-old president.

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Furthermore, with Biden withdrawing, Trump is the outdated man within the race at 78. And most of the pundits who spent their time defending Biden’s psychological acuity have now shifted to arguing that Trump is just shedding.

A side-by-side of former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris. (Getty Photographs)

I believed he denied that in his hour-long press convention, though he does generally tend to ramble. It jogged my memory of our current Mar-a-Lago interview, when he was sharp and critical about no less than 15 matters.

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However the media, largely anti-Trump for 9 years, ruined the press convention. “Wackadoodle,” stated HuffPost. “Unhinged,” stated Rolling Stone.

However how did it assist him to say that the viewers at his inauguration was as massive and even bigger than that for MLK’s well-known “dream speech” in 1963?

The previous president was broadly laughed at when he stated on the press convention that he had as soon as crash-landed in a helicopter with Willie Brown, after the ex-Kamala buddy denied it. Nevertheless it turned out to be a crash-landing – with one other black politician from California. He had blended up the names.

IN BATTLE TO DEFINE HARRIS, TRUMP MAKES DEMOCRATIC STATE MOVE, AD CALLS HER ‘DANGEROUS LIBERAL’

Trump has at all times run because the strongman, the fighter, the chief of a motion, somebody who remodeled the celebration from its Reaganite roots. Has Harris made it protected for wobbly Republicans and independents who don’t like his habits to discover a protected haven in her?

Allies are pleading with him to be extra centered, together with two former high Trump advisers, Larry Kudlow and Kellyanne Conway. On Fox Enterprise, Kudlow requested this of his ex-boss: “Do not run away, do not name her silly and all these different names, stick with your message?”

“The profitable formulation for President Trump,” Conway stated, “may be very clear to see. It’s much less insults, extra insights and that coverage distinction.”

In a two-hour dialog with Elon Musk about X, suffering from technical difficulties, Trump stated Harris’ Time cowl sketch “seems to be like essentially the most stunning actress that ever lived” and that she regarded lots like Melania. He backtracked, calling Kamala “a gorgeous lady.” (Musk says site visitors peaked at 73 million views.)

Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald J. Trump holds his first public marketing campaign rally along with his working mate, vice presidential nominee and Senator J.D. Vance (R-OH) (not pictured), at Van Andel Enviornment on July 20, 2024 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. (Invoice Pugliano/Getty Photographs)

One results of Trump’s media blitz is that Harris lastly answered substantive questions from her press corps (after her 70-second mumble of quick, clipped solutions). He’s campaigning in opposition to a media institution that treats Harris like a queen.

I take nothing away from Harris and the shrewd manner she’s dealt with the final three weeks. After watching a number of of her TV interviews when Biden was nonetheless working, I advised folks she was vastly improved from the hesitant, hyper-cautious speaker of the early days.

However the mainstream press has made no concern of Harris’ refusal to provide a single interview, regardless of Biden’s fixed criticism of his media avoidance. They merely brush it off by saying, hopefully by the top of the month. But Trump and J.D. Vance have pushed the problem so laborious that journalists have been pressured to cowl the controversy by framing it as “Republicans impeach Harris,” when it must be a part of their job, too.

The previous president stated he could be much less divisive after narrowly surviving that horrific assassination try, however he rapidly introduced he would abandon the method — a basic Trumpian sample. He known as Harris “dumb as a rock” and questioned her racial identification earlier than the Nationwide Affiliation of Black Journalists.

TRUMP VS. NABJ: HOSTILITY AND QUESTIONS ABOUT JOURNALISM

Trump additionally stated Harris’ camp used AI to simulate massive crowds at Detroit’s airport, whereas wider footage confirmed hundreds of individuals had been current.

And maybe he was additionally shocked by what he known as an unlawful hack, provided that inside paperwork had been despatched to a few media shops — Politico, the Washington Publish and the New York Instances — which have refused to publish the fabric.

“I completely HATE the faux information media,” he posted after the chat with Musk.

However bear in mind: Trump has a a lot simpler path to 270 and will simply win. Harris is attracting new supporters but additionally shedding amongst some demographics that supported Biden. She should be considered because the underdog. She should navigate her coverage pivots and persuade voters that the primary Black lady president and Asian American president could be a believable commander in chief.

U.S. Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris waves as she boards Air Drive Two at San Francisco Worldwide Airport in San Francisco, California, on her manner again to Washington, D.C., on August 11, 2024. (JULIA NIKHINSON/POOL/AFP by way of Getty Photographs)

One signal that that is now not unthinkable: Politico has printed an article about how “progressive nationwide safety professionals are already eyeing positions in a possible Kamala Harris administration.”

Time’s cowl story is overwhelmingly optimistic. Her enthusiasm “was paying homage to the early days of Barack Obama. . . . She appears attuned to the second: a former prosecutor taking up a convicted felon.”

And: “Harris’ rebranding — the happy-warrior angle, the viral memes, the eye-rolling at Republican ‘weirdos’ — has already performed what no Trump opponent has ever been in a position to do: steal consideration away from him.”

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We’ll see how far the brand new vibe takes her.

Howard Kurtz is the host of FOX Information Channel’s MediaBuzz (Sundays 11 a.m.-12 p.m. ET). He lives in Washington, D.C., joined the community in July 2013 and seems recurrently on Particular Report with Bret Baier and different applications.

Kamala Harris, Time cowl lady: Is her rise in opposition to Trump fueled by an limitless media honeymoon?

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