Donald Trump isn’t particularly impressed with Kamala Harris’ ability to do an interview — even, as he implied, with notes.
During a town hall-style meeting broadcast on Fox News Wednesday, Trump savaged Harris’ long-awaited sit-down with CNN — along with her emotional support running mate, Tim Walz — saying that it was obvious she was reading from material and “nobody wants to cover it.”
The remark came after Sean Hannity, who was hosting the event, hit Harris for the truncated length of her sit-down with CNN’s Dana Bash, aired last week.
“Sixteen minutes and 30 seconds are up. Thank you for being with us!” Hannity quipped, remarking at the amount of actual speaking time the Democratic presidential nominee did during the CNN interview, her first since becoming the de facto standard-bearer in July.
“I’ll say something, though,” Trump said through the laughter. “If you watch that interview, she had notes. That means she knew the questions.”
HANNITY: “16 minutes and 30 seconds are up. Thank you for being with us!”
TRUMP: “She had notes! That means she knew the questions! She kept looking down! Nobody wants to cover it! I know ALL about notes!” pic.twitter.com/mw73EWK5tV
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) September 5, 2024
“She kept looking down!” he continued. “Nobody wants to cover it. I know all about notes!”
Leaving aside the wonderfully chucklesome Trumpism (“I’m the best without notes, I have all the best non-note answers”) and the fact that he’s known for speaking off the cuff, this brings up two of the major issues with the Harris-CNN interview: the fact she kept looking down, for some unknown reason, and the fact that nobody seemed to really call her on it.
Gee, I wonder what might have been down there:
Kamala Harris Caught Hiding Notes During @CNN Interview? See this suspicious clip, where Kamala keeps looking down at a fixed spot, but in wide frame, nothing is there. Is there a reason to lie about notes? (cc: @elonmusk )
I mean, if I went on CNN for an interview I’d make damn… pic.twitter.com/5WSwmQ4ldN
— Frank Broadview (AKA ChairmanOfTheBored) (@CastleBroadview) August 30, 2024
Why was Kamala Harris constantly looking down during the interview? Was she looking at notes that were cropped out by editing and zooming in? Or is she searching for the answer?
If that’s the best she could do with notes, she is in real trouble for the debate pic.twitter.com/uP8CTXe87Z
— Ari Hoffman (@thehoffather) August 30, 2024
Part of Kamala’s interview at #CNN. Awful. She’s looks down at a note card almost the entire time. Pathetic. pic.twitter.com/hlnlNFhpHk
— HaveBlue77 (@HaveBlue77) August 29, 2024
Maybe she’s not the best at eye contact, but there was a lot of glancing downwards during the 16-and-a-half minutes she was talking.
This is a problem for a number of reasons, not the least of which was the fact that the interview was underwhelming anyway — if gaffe free.
Instead, if she was using note cards for this, they’ll be taken away during the Sept. 10 debate between Harris and Trump. Reports claimed her camp wanted to change the rules to allow for notes as well as to keep both mics open as each candidate spoke, rather than to mute the other candidate.
“Vice President Harris, a former prosecutor, will be fundamentally disadvantaged by this format, which will serve to shield Donald Trump from direct exchanges with the Vice President. We suspect this is the primary reason for his campaign’s insistence on muted microphones,” a letter from Harris’ campaign to ABC News, which will host the debate, read, according to CNN.
Whatever the case, any changes to the format were shot down by ABC and she’ll be without her notes or muted mics. And as for whether she was using notes during the CNN interview? If she weren’t, why would they be a big deal when she got up on the debate stage?
Just saying. She’ll have to be up there for a lot longer than 16 minutes and 30 seconds, after all.