SiriusXM’s Megyn Kelly said on Friday that CNN host Dana Bash “didn’t have the stones” to press Vice President Kamala Harris or her running mate Tim Walz, allowing her to avoid explaining her policy reversals during their first joint interview.
CNN on Thursday released a nearly half-hour interview of Harris and Walz answering questions from Bash about their campaign. While Kelly acknowledged Bash is a “real journalist,” she argued that the CNN host didn’t “press” Harris because she knew the vice president “couldn’t take it.”
“I’m sorry, Dana Bash, I’m disappointed. I actually like Dana, she’s tough to dislike. She’s a nice person and honestly she’s a real journalist — she really is. She’s not like some of these other hacks, but she fell down on the job last night. There’s no question,” Kelly said.
“My overall take — can I tell you? Is that this is what happens when you have a meek person interviewed by a meek journalist — that’s what we saw. I don’t wish to personally offend her, but that’s what I saw. She didn’t have the stones to really press Kamala Harris and I think that’s because she knew Kamala Harris couldn’t take it,” Kelly continued. “So she went very gently with her and as a result we didn’t get Kamala Harris really pressed on any answers and we didn’t see her in any uncomfortable position — which is your job.”
Kelly continued to call out Bash by stating she “failed the profession and the country” as she’s been the only person to interview the potential next president of the United States.
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“As a journalist in that kind of setting when you are the only one to get an interview with a person who could be the next president of the United States and you go soft on her? You’ve failed us! You’ve failed the profession and the country. That’s of course why she was selected. Kamala Harris knew very well she could not take a tough interviewer, her team knew she could not take a tough interviewer,” Kelly said.
Kelly continued to question the choice to have Bash interview the two political leaders, adding that she believes fellow CNN host Jake Tapper may have “felt a greater obligation to try to press” the two.
“While there were a couple instances where she pushed for an answer to the question there was so much more that could have and should have been done that led us feeling completely empty. That’s the overall take I have — it was empty calories,” Kelly continued. “CNN promised us that this interview was going to ‘present Harris with the first chance to elucidate her position on various domestic and foreign issues.’ It did anything but.”
Following the Democratic National Convention (DNC), the Harris campaign faced questions about why the vice president had not sat for a personal interview with the press since becoming the party’s presidential nominee. During a Sunday interview on ABC News, Republican Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton also criticized Harris for failing to personally disavow the far-left policies she supported during her 2020 campaign, noting that only her aides had pushed back in the media.
In her interview with Bash, Harris avoided detailing why she has flip-flopped on various policy stances, including banning fracking and enforcement measures at the U.S. southern border. Despite call outs from the media, Harris has yet to release an official policy platform on her campaign website as of Friday.
Featured Image Credit: Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America
