Katie Couric took aim at Vice President Kamala Harris for her unclear answers during interviews in the run-up to the presidential election.
On her podcast, Couric expressed frustration with Harris’s inability to provide clear answers, citing her performance during a CNN town hall and comments on “The View” as particularly damaging.
Couric suggested that Harris should have prepared a strategy for handling tough questions and noted that her absence from interviews in the early campaign period was concerning.
Jen Psaki, a former Biden press secretary, acknowledged the challenges Harris faced but did not provide a clear explanation for her interview strategy.
“I always find that people do better when they’re asked really challenging, pointed questions. I always felt that way about Hillary Clinton,” Couric said. “If you are giving them these almost weird, like, amorphous softballs, it’s really hard to kind of hone your message and be succinct and say what you really need to say.”
“I also felt that, and again, I think [Harris] really did well in so many areas, but I was frustrated by her inability to really succinctly answer questions at times, Jen,” Couric continued.
“Like, if she was asked about changing the Supreme Court at that CNN town hall, she had an opportunity to talk about ethics and what, you know, [Supreme Court Justices Samuel] Alito and Clarence Thomas were doing, and she answered, like, in one sentence, and then went on to something that had nothing to do with the question,” Couric said. “You know, people notice that, and it’s like, ‘Answer the g-dd–n question, please!’”
“Ok, Jen, you’re an insider. Why didn’t Joe Biden say, ‘Listen, I know you’re going to have to separate yourself from this administration. Let’s talk about areas where you can, where they’re legitimate, and God speed,'” Couric wondered. “Because it- I think somebody wrote that it was almost as if they were more afraid of hurting Joe Biden’s feelings than winning the election.”
“It seems to me, if I were running for president, Jen, I would sit down with my brain trust, and I’d be like, ‘Okay, let’s play out these questions. What am I gonna say?'” Couric said.
“And I would have had a template that I would have carried around with me in every interview, and I would have reviewed them and said, you know, ‘This is what I believe, and this is how I’m going to handle a question like that.’ Now, why didn’t they- it just didn’t seem like that was done. Am I crazy?” she asked.
