Vice President Kamala Harris gave a puzzling and often meandering answer when asked how she would respond to people who accuse her of pandering — eventually admitting that what she’s doing now is ‘not new,’ but if she were president she would take a ‘new approach’ to that job.
Harris was interviewed by Pro Football Hall of Famer Shannon Sharpe on the ‘Club Shay Shay’ podcast this week.
Sharpe expressed frustration with what he claimed was a disparity in how Black candidates are treated when they lay out their policies. He said they are often accused of ‘pandering.’
‘The problem that I have with that is it just seems like only Black people pander,’ Sharpe said.
He said when other candidates go on shows and lay out their ‘elaborate plan of what they’re going to do,’ they’re not pandering. He said, when Harris lays out what she is going to do if she’s elected president, she’s accused of pandering.
Sharpe asked how she plans to ‘get through to those’ that accuse her of pandering and how she can make it clear what she intends to do if she’s elected.
Harris told the host if people look at facts instead of misinformation, they will see that almost everything she has done is based on a foundation she built for years. For instance, she said she has worked on the economic empowerment of Black communities for years, and as vice president, she has been responsible for getting billions of dollars into community banks to increase access to capital for minorities and other small business owners.
‘What I’m talking about doing right now is based on long-standing work,’ Harris said. ‘It’s not new. But as president of the United States, part of why it is important is it is a new approach to that job.
‘It is about a new way that is based on a new generation of leadership that is based on new ideas and, frankly, a different experience that brings my commitment to the work I am talking about into being,’ she added.
The Trump campaign seized on the puzzling answer — sharing a clip on X. The clip triggered a flurry of responses from users.
‘Did anyone understand what she just said?’ one user asked.
‘So, it’s [not] new…but it’s new…but it’s the same…but it’s new. OK, got it. Thanks for clearing that up, Kamalaladingdong,’ another user wrote.
Still, one more user wrote, ‘She fails again to explain anything.’
The Democratic presidential nominee has continued to storm through battleground states in her bid to become the leader of the free world. Critics have accused her of serving up a series of ‘word salad’ answers to questions that lack any real substance.
Last month, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich issued a warning about Harris during an appearance on ‘Hannity.’
‘Part of this may be psychological, and she may not be capable of uttering a clear, coherent policy position,’ Gingrich said. ‘But whatever the reason, the more we get these word salads, the more obvious it is that she either doesn’t know what she’s saying or she can’t articulate it, or she’s trying to hide. These things all hurt her.’