Video News Clips: In Their Own Words

Chris Cuomo Says Harris Is ‘Hiding’ From Media Because ‘There’s Risk’ With Her Compared To Past Dem Nominees

Screenshot/YouTube/The Chris Cuomo Project

NewsNation host Chris Cuomo said during a Thursday podcast that Vice President Kamala Harris is avoiding the media because she is more vulnerable than previous Democratic presidential nominees.

Harris still has not sat down for an interview one month into her presidential campaign, and she is slated to accept the Democratic nomination for president on Thursday, two days after former President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama’s Democratic National Convention (DNC) speeches. Cuomo, on “The Chris Cuomo Project,” said Harris is “hiding” from the press because of the “risk” involved, something that was not a factor for Obama and other Democratic presidential nominees, who he suggested were more talented.

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Chris Cuomo Says Harris Is ‘Hiding’ From Media Because ‘There’s Risk’ With Her Compared To Past Dem Nominees pic.twitter.com/JdVXZQIuYW

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“I do think there’s something special about Barack Obama when it comes to political acumen and political skill set, and I think he showed that [on Tuesday]. Now, there’s also a reason that he and Michelle were removed by two days from Harris. Why? Because you got to be careful about overshadowing your nominee,” Cuomo said. “And when she gets this mantle, when this convention ends, when Labor Day happens … it’s time for her to make the case. With me, on the media, in the papers, on the sets, from the stump, in a debate, in more than one debate. She’s got to show she can make the case.”

“She shouldn’t be hiding from making the case. You’ll buy some time; the trend is your friend in politics and the numbers are trending the right way. So they don’t want to put her in front of the media, but that teaches us something also. You don’t want to put her in front of the media because you think there’s risk in that,” he added. “Wouldn’t have done that with Bill Clinton, they wouldn’t have done that with Hillary Clinton, they wouldn’t have done that with Barack Obama, because they felt there was no risk about putting those people in the chair. So here they do see some risk. What does that tell you? It’s an open question.”

Cuomo then repeated his assertion that political talent is currently lacking in the United States, a claim he made after Harris’ Friday economic speech, where she made a gaffe. The vice president, during the speech in North Carolina, announced her plan to impose a federal ban on so-called “price gouging,” but said “gauging” rather than “gouging.”

“I don’t really care about gouging, gauging. I don’t care, alright? You got to take the level of talent where you find it,” Cuomo said. “We don’t have great talent in our politics right now. We got to wait for better people to want to get involved in what is such a poison process. But this is who we got.”

Pollster Frank Luntz said on Wednesday that Harris has “had the best launch” of a campaign he’s seen during his career, but she needs a “bump” from the DNC to have a “meaningful advantage over” former President Donald Trump.