Someone may need to do a wellness check on Chris Wallace. Sure, we all know he doesn’t like Donald Trump. That’s not exactly groundbreaking or rare, but some of his recent pronouncements have been head scratching to say the least.
In the wake of Kamala Harris being picked as Joe Biden’s VP candidate, he’s apparently decided to one-up himself, making a statement that leaves me questioning his sanity.
“Fox News Sunday” anchor on Wednesday said Sen. (D-Calif.) is “a reasonably safe choice” for Democrats, adding that the presumptive vice presidential nominee isn’t very far to the left on the political spectrum.“She is not far to the left, despite what Republicans are gonna try to say,”His comments come a day after former Vice President chose Harris as his running mate. After Biden’s announcement, said Harris was his .
I’m sorry, what? Also, this affords me the perfect chance to use this gif.
Though I realize the media are rushing to paint Kamala Harris as a moderate, I’d expect more intellectual honesty here from Wallace. This is Fox News we are talking about. If I wanted to be gaslit about Democrats, I’d just go watch CNN.
On the merits, Wallace is simply wrong. Kamala Harris is rated the 4th most liberal member of the U.S. Senate. Some rankings even have her more liberal than Bernie Sanders, which may seem odd until you remember that Sanders has not been nearly as anti-gun as Harris is. The California Senator supports a mandatory gun buyback in the mold of Australia, which is a deeply left-wing position that essentially sets fire to the Constitution.
Meanwhile, Harris also supports the Green New Deal in full and promoted it heavily during her now doomed primary campaign. She supports some form of Medicare for All, though she’s waffled on what that looks like more times than my son trying to pick a flavor of ice cream. On the three most important topics that define political ideology, guns, the economy, and healthcare, she’s not a moderate at all. She’s about as far to the left as you can go.
But I can keep going. She wants to ban straws, rewrite government regulations to decrease the eating of red meat, and supports a climate tax. Speaking of taxes, she also supports tax hikes in general. Not on Wall Street of course, but on the 80% of middle Americans who got a tax break under the Trump tax cut.
Wallace would go on to say she adds “excitement” to the ticket.
But he said she’s likely to energize voters as Biden’s running mate.“She adds some excitement to the ticket. She’s a statement to African Americans and especially to African American women, who are the real solid core of the Democratic Party, that the party does not take them for granted,” the veteran newsman added.
I always look forward to white guys in their 70s telling people what is important to African American women. In this case, Harris cratered with black voters during the primary, so how “exciting” she is to them is certainly up for debate. Regardless, her ability as a retail politician is being enormously exaggerated by most of the media right now. This is a person who started with every advantage possible in the Democratic primary, including an initial poll lead, and didn’t make it through December.
In short, the idea that she’s not far-left is objectively false. The idea that she’s exciting, likable, or adds a lot to Biden’s campaign is debatable at best. Why Wallace would dabble in such nonsense is beyond me, and I suspect he knows better.