Vice President Kamala Harris wasn’t the only one who embarrassed herself on live television Wednesday night during her first “one-on-one network interview” since joining the 2024 race for the White House. The interviewer, MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle, also beclowned herself when she not only failed to press Harris on key issues but also waved off the Democratic presidential nominee’s refusal to “give a clear and direct answer” as normal and acceptable.
The bar for Ruhle to do her job was already low. In addition to working for one of the most well-known Democrat propaganda outlets in the corporate media complex, Ruhle has publicly and unapologetically offered Harris a cascade of compliments and excuses while simultaneously calling her political challenger, former President Donald Trump, a “threat to democracy.
In fact, it was only after she gave a glowing endorsement of Harris’ hide-in-the-basement strategy on Bill Maher’s show over the weekend that MSNBC announced Ruhle would host the VP’s next softball Q-and-A appearance.
During the sitdown, which should have never been awarded to Ruhle thanks to her propensity for Harris propaganda, the pair laughed their way through Harris’ lies.
“You have laid out policy in great detail,” Ruhle fawned during the nearly 25-minute conversation.
Ruhle took Harris’ talking points, like when she accused Trump of being “not very serious about how he thinks about some of these issues,” as gospel, proudly regurgitating them as she segued between questions.
“His plan is not serious, when you lay it out like that,” Ruhle agreed.
Ruhle even accepted without hesitation Harris’ insistence that she worked at a McDonald’s, despite reporting suggesting her all-American anecdote only came into play during her first presidential run in 2019.
Ruhle likely thought that asking Harris one semi-decent question about the border invasion, a topic that ranks among a majority of U.S. voters’ top concerns heading into the election, would give her credibility. Instead, it only showed viewers how many times Ruhle squandered her opportunity to ask Harris hard-hitting questions on nothingburgers like “can we trust you?”
There’s no doubt that Ruhle’s treatment of Harris before and during their discussion paved the way for MSNBC to praise Harris for her “working-class street credibility,” her ability to “needle Trump, subtly,” her attempt to blame Trump for the dire economic conditions created by the Biden administration and Democrats, and her penchant for feeding paranoia that “women have reason to fear a second Trump presidency.”
Ruhle and MSNBC’s interference didn’t stop there. She tried to pad her performance as interviewer by complaining to MSNBC’s Nicole Wallace shortly before the exchange aired that Harris “doesn’t answer the question.”
“Here’s what’s a little tricky. She doesn’t answer the question around if the GOP is controlling the Senate, if she can’t raise corporate taxes, where is she going to get the money from to expand the child tax credit and do all the things she wants to do?” Ruhle said
Ruhle noted that Harris says “we just have to do it” without offering a tangible plan of action but couched her criticism by calling Harris’ campaign promise “great.”
Shortly after the interview aired, Ruhle joined another coworker on her home network to frame Harris’ corporate media-fueled incompetency in a positive light.
“One could watch and say she didn’t give a clear and direct answer. And that’s okay, because we’re not talking about clear and direct issues,” Ruhle told MSNBC’s Chris Hayes.
Even the most minuscule pushback from the host who already made her allegiance to Harris abundantly clear could have been beneficial for Americans, whose faith in the corporate media’s ability to report basic facts is rapidly declining. Instead of owning up to her activist role, however, Ruhle used the aftermath of the conversation to once again defend Harris.
That’s not the behavior of a veteran journalist. That’s the mark of a classic corporate media propagandist.
Jordan Boyd is a staff writer at The Federalist and producer of The Federalist Radio Hour. Her work has also been featured in The Daily Wire, Fox News, and RealClearPolitics. Jordan graduated from Baylor University where she majored in political science and minored in journalism. Follow her on X @jordanboydtx.
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