On Friday’s broadcast of HBO’s “Real Time,” MSNBC host and NBC Senior Business Analyst Stephanie Ruhle stated that “there are some things you might not know” 2024 Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris’ answer to, but when it comes to her Republican counterpart, former President Donald Trump, “you know his answer to everything.”
Ruhle began by stating that Harris is in a tough spot on Israel policy since she is the sitting Vice President.
New York Times columnist Bret Stephens then said, “But my question to you, it’s an honest question, is she just being vague because the political equities are such that it doesn’t pay to be specific, or does she simply have no idea? And I am an undecided –.”
Ruhle cut in to answer, “[T]hat’s not an honest question, to me, because there’s no way you think I’m going to turn and say, you know what, Bret, you’re right, she has no idea.”
Stephens then said, “The question that Americans have, okay — the question — look, I’m an undecided voter, I’m never going to vote for Trump, but I’m not sure I want to vote for Kamala. And my fear is that she doesn’t really have a very good command of what she wants to do as president. It would be great for her to sit down with [host Bill Maher] or George Stephanopoulos or you, Stephanie –.”
After host Bill Maher cut in to joke about Harris doing an interview with him, Stephens continued, “George W. Bush, 25 years ago, was asked if he could name the president of Pakistan and other people and he had no idea, and people said, this guy has no command of foreign policy. And it turned out to be a prescient set of questions. It’s not too much to ask Kamala, say, are you for a Palestinian state if Hamas is going to run that state?”
Ruhle responded, “Okay, and let’s say you don’t like her answer, are you going to vote for Donald Trump?” After Stephens said he wouldn’t, Ruhle continued, “Kamala Harris is not running for perfect, she’s running against Trump. We have two choices. And so, there are some things you might not know her answer to, and in 2024, unlike 2016, for a lot of the American people, we know exactly what Trump will do, who he is, and the kind of threat he is to democracy.”
Stephens cut in to counter, “Stephanie, the problem people have with Kamala is we don’t know her answer to anything, okay?”
Ruhle responded, “But you know his answer to everything.”
Stephens continued, “And that’s why I would never vote for him and people shouldn’t vote for him, but people also expect to have some idea of what the program is of the person you’re supposed to vote for. You’re just not supposed to say well, you have to vote for Y because X is this, that, and the other. Let’s find out a little bit more, and I don’t think it’s a lot to ask her to sit down for a real interview, as opposed to a puff piece in which she describes her feelings [on] growing up in Oakland with nice lawns.”
Ruhle responded, “I would just say to that, when you move to Nirvana, give me your real estate broker’s number and I’ll be your next-door neighbor. We don’t live there.”
Later, Stephens said he wants “a substantive answer on real questions facing the American people on inflation, immigration, and foreign policy, basic things that we used to expect presidential candidates could answer.”
Ruhle responded, “I would just say this, did you ever play the game, would you rather? Because that is what voting for the president is.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
