On Tuesday, during a segment on CNN’s “Newsnight,” network political analyst Scott Jennings questioned the need for Democratic vice-presidential nominee Tim Walz to accompany Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris.
According to Jennings, Walz is acting as Harris’ “emotional support animal.”
Partial transcript as follows:
LAURA LEADER: There’s nothing else really to run at the moment. I mean, that’s part of it. I mean, and, look, and Bakari is right, the other part of this is that they’ve, you know, we had a historic convention in that they brought in what, 150 creators, social media creators, who right now, I mean, and, obviously, we all love being on cable television, the fact is the young people don’t get their news that way. And they’ve been extraordinarily effective in bringing their message to young people through the mediums that they use, which has mostly been social media. So, it’s not to say she shouldn’t do these interviews, but it is a new world. In the same way that Obama, you know, leveraged was sort of the first internet campaign.
BAKARI SELLERS: You said that much better than I did.
LEADER: I thought so.
SCOTT JENNINGS: It has nothing to do with whether she can do content creators or Paul Finebaum, whatever. It has everything to do with whether she can answer a hard question. And I’m sorry, bringing in your TikTokers or whatever, she’s not exactly going to be exploring that —
SELLERS: Wow. That condescension is not going to do well for the campaign.
JENNINGS: What campaign?
LEADER: I’m just saying it’s a new media world.
JENNINGS: The reality is, she hasn’t answered a single hard question, and now they finally signed up for some, and she’s got to bring along an emotional support animal at the same time.
LEADER: But you know what, whatever —
JENNINGS: So, I mean, it’s a lack of confidence.
LEADER: And it’s working for her. It’s working.
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