MOSHE HILL OPINION COLUMNS SEPTEMBER 18 2024
A debate filled with lies. A disastrous solo interview. Now another assassination attempt on her political opponent. Kamala Harris is a coin flip away from becoming the President of the United States, and from every possible angle, she is wholly and completely unfit for the job she seeks.
Obviously, the media want her to win. The Media Research Center (MRC) conducted a study of the big three networks (ABC, CBS, and NBC) on their coverage of Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, from the moment she forced her way into Joe Biden’s slot until the debate. They remove partisan commentary and polling reports, and simply focus on if a news story was positive or negative.
The study found that stories about Trump were overwhelmingly negative. CBS coverage was 77% negative, NBC was 86%. ABC, the host of the debate, was 93% negative on Trump. Yet that is not the story. The networks have had those numbers on Trump since 2015. The real story is their coverage of Kamala. NBC’s coverage of Kamala was positive 71% of the time. CBS’s coverage was positive 94% of the time. ABC – once again, the host of the only debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump – was positive on Harris 100% of the time. They could not find a single negative story about her in six weeks.
Since the networks refuse to do their jobs and hold presidential candidates for the Democratic Party accountable, it is the responsibility of everyone with a microphone or a pen or a dinner table to do so. The first question Kamala Harris was asked at the debate, she did not answer. She was asked, “When it comes to the economy, do you believe Americans are better off than they were four years ago?” She went into a pre-canned speech about her “middle-class” upbringing. When asked again about the economy, she blamed all the economic issues that the country is currently facing on Trump, with no mention of Covid. She claimed that he left them with “the worst unemployment since the Great Depression” without mentioning that jobs were being regained at the quickest pace ever and then immediately slowed down when Biden-Harris dumped money into the economy. She claimed that Trump “left us the worst public health epidemic in a century” without mentioning that because of Trump’s leadership there was a vaccine available and a plan to implement it. Then she claimed that “Donald Trump left us the worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War.”
This is not only a lie, it’s morally reprehensible. Reminder: This debate was on the eve of September 11. No one believes that January 6 was worse than 9/11. Rehashing the facts about January 6 is a waste of time, because no matter how many times the clip is played that Trump emphasized that protests should be done “peacefully,” no matter how much evidence there is that Nancy Pelosi refused to allow Capitol Police to secure the proceedings, the media will lie and lie and claim that it was Trump’s fault. The Democrats are repeating the lies they have told for four years because the media lets them get away with it. Harris must be held accountable for that.
Harris lied about trade deficits, claiming that Trump had the highest ever, when in reality, the highest trade deficit numbers happened under her watch in 2022. She attacked him on tariffs, when she kept all of the tariffs in place. She accused him of creating trade wars when in reality, he signed trade deals that her administration had not abided by. She claimed that he sold American technology to China when in reality he blocked Chinese purchases of American companies for national security concerns and revoked licenses to sell to Chinese companies. ABC moderators never bothered to fact check her.
Harris lied about Trump’s positions with impunity. She claimed that he is going to implement “Project 2025,” a 940-policy paper written by 500 people that starts with a disclaimer that not even the authors agree with all the proposals. She claimed that he would ban abortion when he specifically said he would not. She claimed that he would ban IVF when he specifically said he would make IVF covered by insurance. She lied about the border. She lied about American soldiers in combat zones. She lied about the Supreme Court. She lied about Charlottesville. She lied about guns. She lied and lied and lied and lied.
That’s not even the problem, though. The problem is that the moderators didn’t “fact check” her, but they did for Trump. The problem is that CNN claimed she lied once, when she lied repeatedly. The problem is that the media needed to fact check themselves, claiming that Trump lied when he pointed out her policies, when he didn’t. (Harris is so radical that the media assumed that Trump’s accusations were false, when they were actually true.) The problem is that Trump didn’t take advantage of her weakness, and instead allowed himself to get baited into talking about rallies and pets in Springfield.
The Harris campaign celebrated the “win,” even though it was aided and abetted by the moderators. Harris then went on to conduct her first solo interview of the campaign, where she was asked five questions and didn’t answer a single one. She sat with Brian Taff from the ABC News affiliate in Philadelphia. Yes, the same ABC News that gives her 100% positive coverage and threw the debate in her favor.
She went on her pre-canned rant about her middle-class upbringing when she was asked what policies would bring down inflation. She couldn’t get a coherent thoughtful response to any of the softball questions he threw at her. She is a terrible candidate, and completely over her head. If she had to go through a primary process like any other candidate has done, she would never be in the position she’s in. We know this because she had to drop out of the 2020 primary in 2019, before any votes were cast.
Kamala Harris is, for all intents and purposes, a 50/50 shot at being the next President. This is a problem. She is a liar, she is a radical, and she is wrong about every issue that matters to the American people. She is also going up against Donald Trump, who drives people insane. So Americans may have to get used to the cringe laugh and the word salad while having less money in their wallets and less security on their streets. Election day is coming soon. Better tell everyone you know to get out and vote.
