After watching the opening act of the Kamala Harris presidential campaign, one thing is abundantly clear: She and her handlers think they can win the White House by pleading the Fifth from now through Nov. 5.
Ever since she launched her first presidential campaign back in January of 2019, Kamala Harris has not held one US press conference. She has not done anything resembling a tough interview.
She’s really no different from Joe Biden: Take away her teleprompter and her script, and things go sideways in a hurry.
Compare that to Donald Trump, who on Wednesday was invited to appear before the National Association of Black Journalists in Chicago.
Trump, in an effort to expand his inroads with black voters by making himself accessible, accepted the invitation.
Smart move — because he has shown he can connect with minority voters across the board, especially during this campaign cycle.
Recall his visits to the South Bronx and Harlem this spring, his sneaker convention appearance before a largely minority and Gen Z audience and his rally in the blue state of New Jersey with an estimated 100,000 people in attendance.
His NABJ appearance was classic Trump, sparring out of the gate with the hopelessly biased ABC News correspondent Rachel Scott.
Scott accused Trump of racism based on his criticism of Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg — a profoundly ridiculous premise, given how critical Trump has been of prosecutor Jack Smith, who at last check was a white guy.
But when Trump was actually asked relevant questions about inflation and illegal immigration by Fox News anchor Harris Faulkner, he hammered Kamala on both issues, underscoring that during his time as president, black voters were far better off.
The facts and numbers back that up: Inflation was lower, employment was higher. And illegal immigration under Biden-Harris has greatly impacted citizens in urban areas, where they’re seeing their jobs and social services like sanitation and education and police taken away.
The Trump outreach is paying dividends: A recent CNN poll shows the Republican getting an eye-popping 30% of the black vote compared to Harris, who gets 63%.
Usually the split is around 90/10 for the Democrat — so needless to say, if Trump can get even half that level of support, this race is over.
For her part, Harris also received an invitation from the NABJ, but declined to appear live and will only do so at some point by Zoom (sound familiar?).
The reason is simple: Harris and actual journalists asking germane questions about her radical policy positions simply cannot co-exist.
And as we’ve seen from the Queen of Word Salads, she does not possess the ability to speak extemporaneously with anything resembling coherent arguments.
She would have to answer questions on ending the fossil-fuel industry, abolishing ICE, ending all private health insurance and providing free health care to illegal immigrants, for starters.
Harris would also be asked to explain her support of late-term abortion, sanctuary cities, allowing violent criminals to vote from jail and everything from her desire to expand the Supreme Court to allowing biological men to compete against biological women in sports.
Team Harris thinks she can win not on the issues (outside of abortion), but on thin-sliced identity groups working on her behalf, such as the testosterone-challenged White Dudes for Harris, and perhaps the occasional interview with RuPaul’s drag queens.
All foam and no beer.
That’s Kamala Harris.
And at a time when Americans face a raft of serious problems, from inflation to crime to an open border to an increasingly unstable world, we can’t have another candidate who hides from questions and accountability while going up against a fearless candidate like Donald Trump.
Joe Concha is the author of the new bestseller “Progressively Worse: Why Today’s Democrats Ain’t Your Daddy’s Donkeys.”