In a podcast interview, former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton asserts that questions about Harris's policy aren't motivated by a genuine desire to understand what each candidate represents and gauge what kind of leadership they'd offer the United States, but are instead a double standard rooted in sexism.
Fox News reports:
Hillary Clinton forcefully argued that Vice President Kamala Harris didn't need to clarify her policy positions in interviews and said that the 2024 Democratic candidate was facing a “double standard” from voters and the media.
“She does not have to do it, Kara. I'm going to just cut to the chase. In fact, she's put out policies on her campaign website. Anybody who's truly interested can go and read about them. She referenced policies. She actually doesn't just have policies and concepts. She has plans about what to do.”
Readers should note that the sitting Vice President went over a month into her candidacy before publishing a platform to her website, and she only shared them days before the debate — presumably to avoid Trump using it as an example of what he's repeatedly characterized as a lack of vision and ideas.
Prior to outlining her policies online, she was notoriously slow to engage with the media or discuss anything of substance. Multiple commentators (including Democrats) have accused her campaign of focusing more on “vibes” than the issues pressing the American people. Instead of detailing how she'd tackle the many obstacles facing the United States, they say she's prioritized creating media clips with the goal of making her seem relatable and likable. They point to the video she shot at Sheetz in Pennsylvania looking for Doritos, the video of her talking about preparing collard greens in a bathtub, and the bizarre “interview” that she shot of herself and Tim Walz talking about their favorite music and “white guy tacos.”
Clinton continued.
“I think it's, um, you know, it's a double standard, and it's a double standard that is partly because they are still getting to know her. But also because they're still grappling with the idea like, ‘Oh, am I really going to vote for a woman to be president and commander in chief?'”
Clinton also famously blamed her 2016 loss to Donald Trump on sexism (in addition to Russian interference).
In an interview with the New York Times earlier this year, she said, “They left me because they just couldn't take a risk on me because, as a woman, I'm supposed to be perfect. They were willing to take a risk on [Trump] — who had a long list of, let's call them flaws, to illustrate his imperfection — because he was a man, and they could envision a man as president and commander-in-chief.”
Just hours after the second assassination attempt on Trump's life, she declared that the media hadn't been persistent or negative enough in their coverage of the Republican contender.
“The press is still not able to cover Trump the way that they should. They careen from one outrage to the next… I don't understand why it's so difficult for the press to have a consistent narrative about how dangerous Trump is. You know, the late great journalist Harry Evans one time said that journalists should, you know, really try to achieve objectivity, and by that, he said, I mean they should cover the object. Well, the object in this case is Donald Trump. His demagoguery, his danger to our country and the world. And stick with it.”
