Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris delivered a prebuttal Thursday afternoon, in anticipation of what she believed President Donald Trump would say during his acceptance speech to his party’s nomination to serve another term later that evening.
Although Harris delivered her speech live in front of reporters, she refused to take questions. That was odd and probably not wise but nevertheless understandable give the circumstances.
First of all, the press would have probably wanted to know why Joe Biden delegated this task to her. Shouldn’t Biden, the Democratic presidential nominee, have done that?
Something that happened over the weekend may have provided the answer to that one.
During a virtual town hall Biden held Saturday with the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, the 2020 Democratic presidential nominee lived up to a moniker Trump gave him early into the campaign: "Sleepy Joe."
Fox News host Sean Hannity was the first to have noticed, and tweeted, "Sleepy Uncle Joe appears to doze off as Hillary speaks during virtual Town Hall."
That prompted a question from Sen. Ted Cruz. TheTexas Republican asked, "Can you think of a better time for a nap?"
Donald Trump Jr. noticed also, and called Biden "truly the gift that keeps on giving."
In addition, Harris pretty much painted herself and the campaign into a corner by sprinkling misstatements of fact throughout the address, something she possibly didn’t want to be called on.
Republican national spokeswoman Elizabeth Harrington observed, "Kamala Harris flees reporters' questions after divisive speech riddled with falsehoods."
One of those "falsehoods" was on the administration’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
Bloomberg News political reporter Jennifer Epstein reported that Harris claimed that "Donald Trump froze," in response to the pandemic. "He was scared, and he was petty and vindictive."
Actually, the administration was on its game. A few months back someone asked White House communications director Alyssa Farah for specifics on the White House response to the crisis early on during the month of February. She answered:
- Feb 2: CDC expanded enhanced entry screening to eight major airports.
- Feb 4: FDA issued an emergency use authorization for the CDC diagnostic.
- Feb 5: Trump administration officials briefed lawmakers on the Federal Govt’s coronavirus response efforts.
- Feb 14: CDC announced their ongoing work with five labs to perform community-based influenza surveillance and study the spread of coronavirus.
- Feb 18: HHS announced it has engaged Sanofi Pasteur in order to develop a coronavirus vaccine and treatments for coronavirus infections.
- Feb 24: The administration requested $2.5 billion from Congress to help combat the spread of the coronavirus.
- Feb 25: HHS Secretary Azar testified before the Senate help committee on the Admin’s coronavirus response efforts.
- Feb 26: President Trump announced Vice President Mike Pence would lead the coronavirus response.
- Feb 29: FDA began to allow labs to develop and utilize coronavirus testing kits during the application & review process.
- Feb 29: The administration issued travel warnings for parts of South Korea & Italy.
- Feb 29: President Trump issued a proclamation expanding entry restrictions on individuals who had visited Iran in the last 14 days.
- And finally — the Trump administration via @fema— conducted 100 project Airbridge flights expediting one billion pieces of PPE across the nation.
Pretty amazing, especially when considering Democrats’ response that ran counter to the above:
- On Jan. 31, Biden called Trump’s initial travel ban to and from China issued that same day "hysterical xenophobia and fear mongering" at a campaign rally in Fort Madison, Iowa. Two months later, on April 3, his campaign reversed itself saying, "Joe Biden supports travel bans that are guided by medical experts."
- On Feb. 24, the same day Trump was requesting funds from Congress to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., partied in Sam Francisco’s Chinatown, where she announced, "what we’re trying to do today is to say everything is fine here."
- Throughout February and even well into March, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio and city Health Commissioner Oxiris Barbot told New Yorkers that everyone should enjoy all that the Big Apple has to offer because the virus was not very widespread and they had everything under cntrol.
But whatever the reason Harris refused to respond to reporters’ questions, it made the Biden campaign look weak, especially when the president and vice president routinely entertain questions from the press — even a hostile one.
And most of all, her refusal to respond to questions ultimately disgraced herself, disgraced the Biden campaign, and the entire Democratic Party.
And that’s a good thing.
Michael Dorstewitz is a retired lawyer and has been a frequent contributor to BizPac Review and Liberty Unyielding. He is also a former U.S. Merchant Marine officer and an enthusiastic Second Amendment supporter, who can often be found honing his skills at the range. Read Michael Dorstewitz's Reports — More Here.