Morning Glory: As hurricanes pummel, Harris stumbles
This is the vice president's worst week to date.
Hurricane Milton is wreaking havoc across Florida this morning even as the recovery and clean-up efforts in Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia continue. The private organizations which have earned confidence over the years—Food for the Poor, the Salvation Army, Samaritan’s Purse and Team Rubicon—are again delivering comfort and necessities to devastated communities. The state agencies and their state national guards are also performing as expected and with their expected high standard of effectiveness.
Pick your narrative about the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Department of Homeland Security, President Biden and Vice President Harris. You can find any narrative you want if you simply search the web for an hour. Try, however, to stick to verified direct quotes.
Example: On October 2, Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkis stated that "We are expecting another hurricane hitting. We do not have the funds. FEMA does not have the funds to make it through the season and what is imminent."
That’s a fact. Mayorkis said that and it stunned lawmakers. Where has the money gone?
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A second quote came from President Biden.
Governor DeSantis, the president stated "has been cooperative. He said he’s gotten all that he needs. I talked to him again yesterday, and I said – no – you're doing a great job, it's all being done well and we thank you for it," Biden said at a press conference Tuesday.
The president spoke after Vice President Harris had slammed DeSantis in a head-scratching attempt to earn some free media in the middle of back-to-back hurricane crises. This did not sit well with Florida’s Governor.
TRUMP CHARGES HURRICANE RESPONSE ‘WORST SINCE KATRINA’
"In fact, she’s been vice president for three and a half years," DeSantis later said. "I’ve dealt with a number of storms under this administration. She has never contributed anything to any of these efforts."
DeSantis went back to emergency management duties after this virtual brush back of Harris after Milton neared landfall, but it was only one of many terrible moments for the vice president and her campaign this week.
For whatever reason, a candidate notorious for making easy interviews into fiascos, Harris chose Monday and Tuesday to launch a sit-down blitz. She answered questions from Ed Harris on "60 Minutes," followed by appearances on "The View," the usually raunchy "Call Her Daddy Podcast," and "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert." The best that could be said about this strategy is that it wasn’t uniformly awful.
It was, however, marked by the sort of political blunder that will likely rank with President Gerald Ford’s assertion during a debate with then candidate Jimmy Carter that "There is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe;" Governor Michael Dukakis being photographed in a tank; President George H.W. Bush looking at his watch in a 1992 Townhall with then candidate Governor Bill Clinton; and then GOP nominee Mitt Romney’s comments about "47%" and "binders of women." Face plants are a feature of most campaign. We just never know when they will occur.
This one occurred when Kamala-booster Sunny Hostin asked Harris on "The View": "Would you have done something differently than President Biden during the past four years?"
Harris responded: "There is not a thing that comes to mind."
Not. A. Thing.
Nothing about the Afghanistan debacle, whether it was abandoning American citizens and Green Card holders or our Afghan allies?
Nothing about Ukraine, whether Biden saying a "minor incursion" by Putin would not be a big deal, or tardy delay of many weapon systems and complex restrictions on the use of those weapons?
Nothing about the southern border? Student loan forgiveness (twice ruled unconstitutional)? The weaponization of the Department of Justice? The restrictions placed on Israel’s war effort including his (and her) adamant demand that the IDF not enter Rafah. ("I’ve studied the maps!" Harris declared during effort to persuade Israel not to do what Israel then successfully did —clear and secure Rafah with minimal casualties to the Palestinian civilians).
Not one word about how she might have acted ina way to stop or at least minimize the massive inflation that hit groceries and housing over the past 45 months?
Harris tried to pick a fight with DeSantis and failed. She tried to rush through four interviews in two days. She’s tried everything and every indication is that nothing is working and her sudden swerve into interview-land suggests her internal polling has her team greatly alarmed.
Or is the team genuinely concerned, or perhaps secretly satisfied? The "Harris Team" is largely Joe Biden’s team, still in place after his sudden abdication and Harris’s ascension to the nomination. But is that team helping her or fighting her? Are they letting Kamala be Kamala or trying to block her from cameras and microphones?
We won’t know until the "tell all" books arrive late this year or early next. But no matter which one you pick up, the hurricanes and Harris and Hostin are certain to be key moments in the drama of Election 2024.
Hugh Hewitt is host of "The Hugh Hewitt Show," heard weekday mornings 6am to 9am ET on the Salem Radio Network, and simulcast on Salem News Channel. Hugh wakes up America on over 400 affiliates nationwide, and on all the streaming platforms where SNC can be seen. He is a frequent guest on the Fox News Channel’s news roundtable hosted by Bret Baier weekdays at 6pm ET. A son of Ohio and a graduate of Harvard College and the University of Michigan Law School, Hewitt has been a Professor of Law at Chapman University’s Fowler School of Law since 1996 where he teaches Constitutional Law. Hewitt launched his eponymous radio show from Los Angeles in 1990. Hewitt has frequently appeared on every major national news television network, hosted television shows for PBS and MSNBC, written for every major American paper, has authored a dozen books and moderated a score of Republican candidate debates, most recently the November 2023 Republican presidential debate in Miami and four Republican presidential debates in the 2015-16 cycle. Hewitt focuses his radio show and his column on the Constitution, national security, American politics and the Cleveland Browns and Guardians. Hewitt has interviewed tens of thousands of guests from Democrats Hillary Clinton and John Kerry to Republican Presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump over his 40 years in broadcast, and this column previews the lead story that will drive his radio/ TV show today.
