CNN’s David Axelrod, the chief strategist behind former President Barack Obama’s presidential campaigns, was critical of Vice President Kamala Harris’ town hall performance on Wednesday night, saying that she struggled to relate to people.
Axelrod made the remarks on the network following the 75-minute event with host Anderson Cooper.
“The things that would concern me is when she doesn’t want to answer a question, her habit is to kind of go to ‘word salad city,’ and she did that on a couple of answers,” he said. “One was on Israel. Anderson asked a direct question, would you be stronger on Israel than Trump? And there was a seven-minute answer, but none of it related to the question he was asking.”
“On certain questions like that, on immigration, I thought she missed an opportunity because she would acknowledge no concerns about any of the administration’s policies, and that’s a mistake,” he continued. “Sometimes you have to concede things, and she didn’t concede much.”
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He then noted that she struggled to relate on a human level to audience members who were asking her questions.
“You do want to relate to the people in front of you,” he said. “She didn’t do a lot of that. She didn’t ask them questions. She didn’t address them particularly. So, she was giving set pieces too much.”
The event produced a number of moments that were negative for Harris, including her inability to articulate a legislative agenda and her admission that the administration would do nothing different with respect to the border crisis.
She also admitted that former President Donald Trump’s border wall was “a good idea,” despite having ridiculed the idea dozens of times in the past.
WATCH:
Top Democrat strategist David Axelrod on Kamala Harris’ town hall performance:
“When she doesn’t want to answer a question, her habit is to kind of go to word salad city”
“She would acknowledge no concerns about any of the administration’s policies and that’s a mistake”
“You… pic.twitter.com/kT2uQrpPWp
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) October 24, 2024
