In a Wednesday interview with Vice President Kamala Harris, MSNBC anchor Stephanie Ruhle preemptively defended the Democratic presidential nominee’s frequent inability to offer direct responses regarding her policies.
Ruhle explained ahead of the broadcast that it was acceptable for Harris to avoid clear answers, stating, “One could watch and say she didn’t give a clear and direct answer. And that’s okay, because we’re not talking about clear and direct issues.”
Despite Harris rising to the top of the Democratic ticket after President Joe Biden withdrew, she has often sidestepped questions since becoming the party’s default candidate. During the interview, when asked about her plans to combat price profiteering, Harris redirected her response.
“I’m never going to apologize for going after companies that take advantage of the desperation of the American people,” Harris said, adding, “That’s part of a more comprehensive plan on what we can do to bring down the cost of living.”
“Isn’t it wonderful to engage in a positive conversation right now?” Ruhle exclaimed after the interview, as reported by Fox News:
Appearing on “Deadline: White House,” Ruhle said that while Harris “didn’t want to go deep” on her plans with tariffs, she claimed the VP had a “serious plan as it relates to manufacturing.”
“If you think about the big economic legislation that has been passed in the last four years, we have actually seen billions of dollars being put to work, thousands of jobs being created, much of which are in red states and red counties, bringing manufacturing jobs back,” Ruhle told her MSNBC colleague Nicolle Wallace.
“Now, they’re not the old manufacturing jobs. They are new manufacturing and this friction, this period of change, doesn’t just happen overnight, right? So Donald Trump, who really appealed to that blue collar, that union worker in 2016 kind of on a guttural, emotional level, we’ve seen the Biden administration appeal to that base on a policy level, but she knows she’s not getting those votes overnight,” Ruhle continued.
Ruhle, who also serves as a business analyst for NBC News, said Harris’ “challenge” is to message to voters that her economic policies “serve everyone,” insisting that the vice president wants to build “an inclusive economy.”
“What I didn’t hear from her was divisive language,” Ruhle gushed to Wallace. “Imagine if I was sitting against Donald Trump, imagine the language he would be using, please! And just the fact that we were talking about collaborative inclusivity — I don’t know. Vote for her or don’t vote for her, but isn’t it great to just have a positive conversation right now?”
The interview was Harris’ first major network appearance since officially becoming the Democratic nominee.
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