This is a rush transcript from "Media Buzz," August 16,2020. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
HOWARD KURTZ, FOX NEWS HOST: This is Media Buzz. I'm Howard Kurtz. Ahead, we will talk with senior adviser for the Trump campaign. From the moment Joe Biden ended all the deep stake speculation with a Zoom call, Kamala Harris has drawn walk on water coverage from most news outlets, drawing special praise naturally as a racial trailblazer along with sharp criticism from media conservatives.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The opportunity to make history with a black woman to put this black woman into the seat of power, in the center of power, black women will be in formation for this ticket. And that is the best news possible for Joe Biden.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Doesn't say something about the changing politics of America that tonight when Harris was announced. Some people said that it was a safe choice. Ask a black woman what it's like being a black woman in America.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The first time I saw Kamala Harris speak, I immediately understood why people in California saw her as the female Obama.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She's inconceivable that given his current state Joe Biden would choose someone so transparently one-dimensional as Kamala Harris, someone as empty as he is.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Even Joe is witted to understand that he's not really going to be running the show if he wins in November. Biden's big mistake, of course was narrowing his options by limiting his choice on the basis of skin color and on planet Earth that used to be called bias or even racism.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Joe didn't make this pick. This pick was made for Joe. And it just shows you the kind of bad judgment and bad instincts that the Biden campaign has. I wouldn't trust Kamala Harris. I think she's very ambitious.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KURTZ: President Trump wasted no time on political pleasantries.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: She was very, very nasty to -- one of the reasons that it surprised me, she was very -- she was probably nastier than even Pocahontas to Joe Biden. She was disrespectful to Joe Biden. And it's hard to pick somebody that's disrespectful.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KURTZ: Biden moved from that virtual conversation with the California senator to introducing her to reporters in Delaware.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE KAMALA HARRIS-D: And we are experiencing a moral reckoning with racism and systematic injustice that has brought a new coalition of conscience to the streets of our country, demanding change. America is crying out for leadership.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KURTZ: Joining us now to analyze the coverage, Mollie Hemingway, senior editor at The Federalist and a Fox News contributor, Susan Ferrechio, chief congressional correspondent for the Washington Examiner, and joining us by phone due to technical difficulties, Clarence Page, columnist for the Chicago Tribune. I'll start with you, Mollie.
Of course, Kamala Harris is a historic pick as the first black woman on a major party ticket and the daughter of Jamaican and Indian immigrants. But what do you make of the way most media outlets are just absolutely cheering her selection with little to no mention of any possible negatives?
MOLLIE HEMINGWAY, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Yeah. When her presidential campaign faltered, the media seemed to delight in her deficiencies and
failure to catch fire. But they just turned on a dime and they were praising her throughout this -- throughout this selection process. But more concerning than the hagiographic headlines and the full color photo spreads is that they were falsely claiming that she was a moderate.
And that's a word that has actual meaning, and her actual voting record is on the far left, right, there with Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders no matter the issue, whether it's abortion, or guns, or immigration, or government spending, or healthcare, or whatever the issue may be. She's on the far-left side.
And you don't need to be as hostile as you are toward Republican picks, the media doesn't need to be as hostile as they are toward Republican picks, not even as friendly as they are to nearly every Democratic pick. They should just tell the facts honestly.
KURTZ: We will come back to this question about her ideology. But Clarence Page, let me ask you first. What do you make -- what does this pick mean to you personally? And do you think the late surge of media stories saying that African-American leaders would be disappointed if a woman of color was not chosen, kind of pressured Biden into making this choice?
CLARENCE PAGE, CHICAGO TRIBUNE SYNDICATED COLUMNIST: Well, he was pressured, you might say by the needs of political -- the national political campaign. What was surprising to me was that he telegraphed in advance that he was looking for a woman. If it would've been me, I would've just -- I'm certainly considering a woman.
And then after the nomination, then I would just pick a woman. By announcing in advance, he took a chance there, but nothing (Inaudible) any less popular with Democrats because there's a strong feeling among Democrats for a woman and a person of color, for people of color very
important because certainly black women are probably the most loyal group, demographic group that the Democrats have.
And black folks put Biden over the top in South Carolina, which after he had lost three primaries in a row, put him back in the race at the front of the race. So that was not a big surprise.
KURTZ: All right. Susan, Mollie kind of anticipated my question to you, which was when how -- Kamala Harris' campaign imploded -- she dropped out well before Iowa. The media were filled with stories about what a terrible campaign she had run. And now, she's being cast by many of these same people as, you know, excellent, terrific campaigner and amazingly good choice. Whether she's the best choice or not possible for Biden is historical revisionism at work here?
SUSAN FERRECHIO, WASHINGTON EXAMINER: It's early. And so in the coverage, so she was just chosen. Their campaign together is now underway. And Harris -- Senator Harris deserves as thorough a vetting as the vice presidential candidate as the press has always given past running mates, particularly if you look back to the last woman on the ticket, not Hillary Clinton, but prior to that Sarah Palin when she was picked to run as McCain's running mate.
I'm thinking of that hypercritical coverage of her candidacy and the real scrutiny she got from the media. She was a surprise pick. We didn't know much about her. Obviously, we know a lot more about Harris because she's been a senator. She's already run for president. As you just said, her campaign didn't go very well.
But she deserves a vetting in terms of her voting record. As Mollie said, she's a true progressive on these issues that are really important to some of these swing states, like gun control and abortion and immigration. Let's take a close look at that and see. Obviously, she's not a moderate in those areas. You can just take a quick look at her voting record.
And what she said on the record to see that that's not a moderate. It's our job in the media to give that a thorough vetting.
KURTZ: I couldn't agree more with that sentiment. We will come back to this question. I want to first play for you, Mollie, a discussion of Kamala Harris on MSNBC when Morning Joe regular, Donny Deutsch, said this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How do one and three Americans still believe this man about Corona or anything? And the answer is only one thing, one in three Americans are racists.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KURTZ: Excuse me, but did Donny Deutsch just insult one-third of the country?
HEMINGWAY: Yes, and this is actually very common. You're seeing the media use this phrase, racist, to describe anything that they disagree with. And it's unfortunate because not only is it not true, it diminishes the power of that slur, which is something that people should avoid. And you saw this with coverage of Kamala Harris that any criticism of her is racist.
That is not going fly. And it's not going to work well. It's not going to work well as a campaign message. It's also not going to work well for the media in terms of having them have any credibility or trust.
KURTZ: Donny Deutsch later apologized for using the phrase yellow man after he talked about black man and a brown man. Clarence Page, many in the media are strongly criticizing President Trump for repeating an argument made by a conservative lawyer. He was asked about this by reporters, the lawyer questioning Kamala Harris' American citizenship, and therefore her eligibility to run for vice president. Roll it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I heard it today that she doesn't meet the requirements. And by the way, the lawyer that wrote that piece is a very highly qualified, very talented lawyer. I have no idea if that's right.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KURTZ: Clarence, as you know, Kamala Harris was born in Oakland and nobody questions that. That means that under the 14th Amendment, she's a citizen of the United States. Her parents were immigrants at the time getting their doctorates. What did you think about the way the president handled that question from the press?
PAGE: Well, I'm one of the members of the press who criticized President Trump for trying to revive birtherism. You can see my column on The Tribune website now. The fact is that you mentioned earlier about the lack of criticism of her when she was announced, partly because President Trump thought somebody else like a Karen Bass was going to be announced who is
farther to the left, or some other person farther to the left, Elizabeth Warren, for example.
But the fact is Kamala Harris among Democrats is definitely a moderate, no question, pretty much like Joe Biden and her belief and her approach to politics. And that is a big reason why you saw so many scatter shot criticisms of her that she was too far left, that she was too far right, or too centrist to appeal to the progressives, et cetera. The fact is it was an excellent choice. She got off to a great start. And certainly, the ample opportunity to pull her background which obviously is already going on.
KURTZ: Yeah, well, just to button this up. The president seemed to slightly soften his stance at a news conference last night, saying he is not going pursue this question of her eligibility. Kamala Harris, in interview with the black news site, The Grio, it's her second interview she's done since her selection with an extremely sympathetic interview -- worked for liberal site accused the administration or the White House of lies and deception.
All right, Susan, let me put up for you two different front pages from the New York Times. One has to do with the day that Mike Pence was announced as Trump's VP. And as we see that, you see it's circled. One story below the foal (ph), on the right, you see the Kamala Harris selection absolutely dominating the front page, four different stories on Senator Harris being chosen. What do you make of that disparity?
FERRECHIO: Well, I justify it somewhat because she's more of a historic choice as a black woman on a Democratic presidential ticket as opposed to Mike Pence. You know, you could say another white person chosen to -- male chosen to be vice president. I get that. And it's the New York Times. I also get that. We should not be frothing over a vice presidential pick, we in the media.
We need to be impartial. So often, the press takes a side once the nominees are picked and once we get into the general election. You're seeing it already with the very, very positive coverage of Harris. And you will see it with, I think, from the New York Times pretty well negative, especially with this whole birtherism issue with the president.
The media brought up the question of whether Harris was a citizen or not. The president didn't bring it up. The president was answering a reporter's question. Obviously, you can criticize the way he answered that question. The media brought it up. They baited him on this. Before I came on the set, Howard, I was reading a 2008 story from the New York Times questioning whether McCain is eligible to run for president because he was born in the Panama Canal. The media has been doing these themselves to Republican candidates. Really, I think the whole story with the baiting the president, it's a big issue.
KURTZ: All right, short on time so I need short answers. Mollie, we're coming back to the question of ideology. Obviously, it's fair game to talk about Senator Harris' record. She had supported Medicare for all before walking it back. And New York Times news story described Biden and Harris as two moderates. But is it fair to say this former prosecutor is a Bernie
Sanders radical?
HEMINGWAY: Well, if you -- if people think that she's moderate, it really only says something about their own political perspective that they are so far to the left that they think she's moderate by comparison to their own views. Again, objectively speaking, you know, when you rate the voting records, Kamala Harris actually had the most liberal voting record in the
Senate last year in a party that's already getting more and more fringed to the left.
And so that's just more objective thing that should be talked about. And, you know, she had problems. She was one of the ring leaders of the anti- Kavanaugh circus. She actually tried to keep a judge from being confirmed because he was a member of the Knights of Columbus. These are not moderate positions. She tried to imprison pro-life journalists again --
KURTZ: All right.
HEMINGWAY: You know, guns, immigration. It means something. We need to be accurate.
KURTZ: All right. Let me just get Clarence in here before we break. Should conservatives who are attacking -- can media conservatives be saying, well, Biden doesn't know what's going on? Kamala Harris will be running the show. He will step down and she'll become president right away?
PAGE: That's part of the trope (ph) that Joe Biden isn't capable of handling the job. I think -- well, that's up to Joe Biden to prove to us during his campaign that the whole notion of Kamala Harris thing person brought in to run the government, this is a crazy conspiracy theory.
KURTZ: All right. Let me get a break. Ahead, we will talk to top Trump campaign spokeswoman Katrina Pierson, but when we come back, the press accusing the president of sabotaging the postal as he keeps warning of election fraud.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KURTZ: Donald Trump and the press have been in a war of words about the postal service with the president warning about widespread fraud from mail- in ballots, and his detractors say he's crippling the agency to influence the election. That battle escalated when Trump, with Maria Bartiromo, addressed the Democrats' demands that the postal service get extra an 25 billion.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Now, they need that money in order to have the post office work so it can take all of these millions and millions of ballots. If they don't get those two items, that means you can't have universal mail-in voting because they're not equipped to have it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KURTZ: Mollie Hemingway, much of the press saying aha. The president said the quiet part out loud that the postal service can't handle the surge in expected mail-in ballots if it doesn't get the money, and you're not getting the money.
HEMINGWAY: I think this week we've seen an explosion of conspiracy theories surrounding the U.S. postal service. It seems like this postal service conspiracy theory is replacing the Democrats' Russia conspiracy theory, which suffered another blow this week with the pleading of the FBI lawyer pleading guilty to altering evidence.
But we have seen no good reporting on this. It is true that President Trump said that he didn't want to give them extra money, specifically for mail-in balloting, which he has opposed on the theory that it is not -- it would take years to get it up to speed, not the weeks that we have here. I think what's really happening with this story is that the media did push, as you note, this mail-in balloting.
But the results are in from the summer, and you had those 31 municipal elections, New Jersey with 10 percent of ballots deemed fraudulent. You had New Yorkers having to wait months to find out results from their mail-in balloting. In Nevada, there were 220,000 mail-in ballots that were sent to the wrong address.
And the media are now realizing that their push for mail-in balloting is not going so well, and they are trying to displace blame and blame Trump and set up this other conspiracy theory to replace the last one that they pushed, and that they are pretending didn't happen.
KURTZ: Well, again, I was referring to the president's own words. And Susan Ferrechio, at least the postal service now run by a major Trump donor has stopped removing mailboxes, because those produced them difficult images. It was the Washington Post that obtained a postal service warning to 46 states, saying we cannot guaranty that we can deliver all mail
ballots or process them. You know, deliver them to be counted by the time of the election. And
that's why I think what sent this story into the stratosphere.
FERRECHIO: Well, it does, because mail-in balloting is coming. A lot of states have declared it to be part of the process in November. And that needs to be fixed. But as Mollie was saying, we are not up to speed on that. So really what I see a combination of confusing comments by the
president and very poor reporting on the subject.
Because there are huge issues with mail-in balloting that deserve good reporting, and then what the president is saying about not wanting to fund it has a lot to do with his concerns about the potential for fraud. And the press isn't covering that. They are also not covering what's really going on at the post office. They are 70 billion in debt.
The GAO has determined the post office to be on an unsustainable financial path. Nothing is being written about that. The president put in a new post master. His job was to go in and reform. Find ways to make it more financially sustainable. He's cutting back on the overtime hours. The combination of all that stuff is -- and the union is getting upset about it and creating this messaging war over what's happening at the post office. While the November election mail-in balloting is approaching. This story is just not being covered in a very accurate way. It's being covered by, I think, people with an agenda.
KURTZ: Clarence --
(CONSPIRACY THEORY)
KURTZ: Do liberal commentators go too far? I will let you talk in a second. Do liberal commentators go too far in accusing the president of deliberately trying to sabotage or steal the election, on this question of the postal service?
PAGE: Well, his actions are questionable, both in a legal and ethical sense. I mean, I appreciate the president's candor. I mean, he says right up -- I don't want to give extra money because it means I might lose as a result of it. I mean, he's trying to manipulate the election now when it's obvious that more money is needed in order to handle mail-in balloting.
He is doing all he can to cut it off. At the same time, the question about both fraud, I've been investigating vote fraud around Chicago off and on since the early 70's. I can tell you the issue should not be how the balloting is done and sent in. The issue is how are they counted. And I
don't care whether it's mail-in or in-person -- the ballots are counted the same way. And President Trump says that it's going to be massive fraud. He has yet to give us a lick of evidence, Howard.
KURTZ: All right, Mollie, quick response.
HEMINGWAY: Well, just that the reporting really is bad. We -- they just got a massive loan signed by the president just a few weeks ago. And we -- we need accurate reporting on this. I have never seen such bad reporting as I'm seeing in picking up this Democratic messaging and conspiracy theory regarding a, quote-unquote, "war" on the postal service.
PAGE: Where are the media wrong?
HEMINGWAY: I'm sorry?
PAGE: What's incorrect?
HEMINGWAY: Well, for instance, the head of the postal service is -- he's put in place by a bipartisan board of governors. There were no removal of mail-in boxes. It's different than any normal change of structure. Meaning, you have to move mail boxes to reflect where they're actually needed. We're just seeing people push conspiracy theories or amplify them --
(CONSPIRACY THEORY)
KURTZ: Got to go guys.
HEMINGWAY: I'm sorry?
PAGE: The timing is suspicious. Remember reconstruction and --
(CONSPIRACY THEORY)
KURTZ: Clarence, I have to go. Clarence, I have to go. I just want to make the quick point that there have been a lot of mail delays. The New York Times has a story today about particularly elderly people complaining they can't get medicine. This affects small towns. So this is not one of those abstract Washington scandals.
Great to see you, all, Mollie, Susan, Clarence, up next, Newsweek's absolutely awful piece on Kamala Harris. Donald Trump versus Mika Brzezinski and how will the networks cover the virtual convention with no cheering crowds.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KURTZ: Newsweek under its controversial ownership has really embarrassed itself with a piece questioning whether Kamala Harris is eligible to run for VP. That's what started this bogus argument we've talking about. Now, the column makes the ludicrous assertion, and maybe the Senator isn't an American because her Jamaican and Indian parents were in this country but
weren't citizens when she was born.
This is flatly untrue, because she was born in Oakland. The legal question was settled long ago. The editors defended the piece for a week, insisting it wasn't racist birtherism until criticism from its own staff prompted them to apologize, saying the column inevitably conveyed the ugly message that Harris was somehow not truly American. Wait, it gets worse.
The magazine failed to disclose that the author, John Eastman, who among other things talks about Harris' divided allegiance was a Republican candidate who competed to run against Harris for California Attorney General. This is a total media disgrace. President Trump is calling Kamala Harris horrible and nasty, and he further unloaded on Joe Biden's running mate with FBN's Maria Bartiromo.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Now, you have a sort of a mad woman, I call her, because she was so angry and such hatred with Justice Kavanaugh. I mean, I've never seen anything like it. She was the angriest of the group.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KURTZ: The president also had some tough words for MSNBC's Mika Brzezinski, while praising Fox and Friends' ratings, tweeting that the wife complete psycho, Joe Scarborough, is a again, quoting, "ditsy air head." Mika hit back hard.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What's your thing with women? Like, you really have a lot of problems with women, like you're scared of them or something. I think this Kamala thing has you completely strung out.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KURTZ: Now, the president, as everyone knows, uses rough language against male opponents as well, but only women are called ditsy. I had thought we'd be doing our program today from Milwaukee and Charlotte next Sunday. But the conventions in the COVID era now just virtual, they start tomorrow. Meaning, they're just TV shows without the delegates and the 15,000
journalists.
We will all take the key speeches. But I suspect you'll be hearing more from the pundits than every before, which is great if you like pundits or do pundits do for a living. But it also means so much spin that you'll have to sort things out for yourselves. Coming up, Trump campaign spokeswoman Katrina Pierson weighs on the Kamala Harris pick and the upcoming convention. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KURTZ: With the media coverage about the shift from Kamala Harris to this week's virtual democratic convention followed by next week's virtual republican convention, joining us now from Dallas is Katrina Pierson, senior adviser to the 2020 Trump campaign.
And Katrina, what do you make of the overwhelmingly positive media coverage of Kamala Harris and is there any part of you that feels that it's progress to have a black woman, even one you disagree with, on a major party ticket?
KATRINA PIERSON, TRUMP 2020 SENIOR ADVISER: Well, I think that the coverage is pretty indicative of what most democrat coverage is and that is to provide protection. We have seen those in Hollywood and politics alike come out and wanted to defend and cuddle her.
But we also heard that she's a strong black woman so she should be able to protect and defend herself but we will have to see what happens there.
You know, as being a black woman, I don't look at the person that I'm going to vote for by their gender or their skin color because what really matters to me and I would assume that this matters to most women, how they are going to govern, if they have experience, and what policies they support specifically when it comes to being a black woman, and Kamala Harris is on the wrong side of the policies that I believe would actually benefit black America.
KURTZ: Right. Now, The New York Times, Washington Post, George Stephanopoulos and others are describing Senator Harris as a moderate. I strongly suspect you couldn't disagree with that. At the same time, should the president be calling her a socialist, and a fundraising letter from your campaign says that both Biden and Harris hate America. How do you justify that kind of language?
PIERSON: I mean you just have to look at their politics. You have to look at what Kamala and the vice president have been saying over the last few months.
When you were talking about policies that actually hurt Americans, when you talk about some of the policies and Kamala double speaks specifically about them, this is definitely a candidate of the choosing for the Democrat Party.
This is a red flag for the party itself because choosing Kamala Harris reinforces what the Trump campaign has been saying for months, and that is that the polls are wrong because if Joe Biden were leading by 10 points and had the black vote locked up, you don't go with an attempt to energize the base.
So this is absolutely the final takeover of the hardcore progressives, socialists, and even Marxists political positions of the Democrat Party. These are policies that are irrational like the crazy Green New Deal that kills millions of jobs and eliminating private health insurance. A government takeover of health care which no one wants and putting illegal aliens ahead of Americans is extremely radical.
KURTZ: Well, I thought for Harris to endorse Medicare for All was a fatal mistake in her campaign. She since walked that back.
When you say takeover, I mean, she is the number two on the ticket. Nobody thinks that Mike Pence is making all administration policy as vice president of the United States.
PIERSON: I don't think anyone is deaf, blind or dumb to notice that Joe Biden doesn't quite have all of his faculties in place. So the number two is extremely important for this case.
She is extremely radical. She is someone as a sitting senator who said during a public hearing that our interior law enforcement agency was compared to the KKK. So this is something that I think is truly important.
And not to mention, you know, Joe Biden even forgot she was a United States senator when he claimed to have the support of the only black woman in the United States Senate. So people are right to look at her as leading the ticket.
KURTZ: All right. Now, the president -- we talked about this earlier -- told reporters that he had heard the conservative lawyer's argument -- this was made in NewsWeek -- that Kamala Harris might not be eligible to run for vice president because of the circumstances of her birth. That was totally bogus in the sense that she was born in Oakland, California and under the 14th Amendment, she is a citizen.
The president said, I have no idea if that's right. Shouldn't he have checked it out before what his critics say is giving legitimacy to the argument or casting doubt on an opponent's eligibility to run for VP?
PIERSON: Look, our president has always spoken his opinion whether be for or against or even on the fence in some cases. This is one of those cases. You know, you're going to have the legal scholars out there debating any and everything when it comes to presidential ticket as they should, by the way. But the reality is she should just be disqualified simply because of the positions that she takes.
I mean, the entire ticket itself. When you think about it, next week, we are going to have the DNC convention which will be evident of the left-wing mob final takeover Democrat Party because the speakers' lineup will mirror the party's ticket.
There will be some aggressively radical and power hungry, you know, old school hippies and new age socialists and Marxists who are going to be out there championing, reimaging policing, and fundamentally destroying America's economy, American security and way of life. I think next week is going to be a true eye opener for the country.
KURTZ: Just to be clear, you're saying Kamala Harris should be disqualified in political terms because of her position. You're not saying that in terms of her birth and questions about her eligibility?
PIERSON: Absolutely not. We will have the legal scholars --
KURTZ: All right.
PIERSON: -- make those debates. And in November, the people will decide.
KURTZ: All right. Now, the president has called her horrible, angry, a mad woman. Some people think that he's being particularly harsh against a female opponent. And the New York Post owned by Rupert Murdoch, conservative editorial page, suggested the president loose the nasty words and that he is hurting himself. Your response?
PIERSON: Well, look, the president has always spoken his opinion about anyone, not just women. He has said some things about other men. And if you look at Kamala's actions, look at the way she treated Brett Kavanaugh. Look at the way that she has spoken about our law enforcement agencies.
This is a sitting senator who was offered some really nasty criticism of our brave law enforcement agencies, as well as Justice Kavanaugh himself. Just go back to those hearings and I think most people would agree with the president's assessments.
KURTZ: All right. Now, the president, as you know, if you pick up a newspaper in recent days, drawing enormous media criticism on the situation with the Postal Service and coming out and saying that he doesn't want extra funding for the Postal Service because he opposes the planned surge in mail-in balloting for the election which he thinks could lead to fraud.
Even Lindsey Graham has broken with him on this issue. A lot of people are upset about it. Is this a political blunder?
PIERSON: No, not at all. Look, the president has been very clear. There are issues that we have seen in some states, but at the same time, this is just another democrat conspiracy theory that's dredged up to distract from the unenthusiastic ticket the Democrat Party has.
Think about it, we are talking about the U.S. Postal Service when we should be talking about the economy, when we should be talking about the vice presidential ticket, and the fact that neither Kamala Harris and Joe Biden is taking questions from the press.
They're not out there campaigning asking for the vote in contrast where you have the president, the vice president, and their campaign out in all of the states asking Americans for their votes and telling them what their vision for the future is.
KURTZ: I need a 10-second answer. Do you think even a virtual democratic convention could help Biden and Harris if it gets a lot of favorable coverage?
PIERSON: Look, I think a virtual convention is going to give the candidate a bump for sure. But I think one thing is to note, that Joe Biden is skipping Wisconsin where he was supposed to accept the nomination for whatever reason, because what I do know is the president, the vice president, even myself, has been to Wisconsin in the last few weeks. So we will have the people of Wisconsin decide if that's sufficient.
KURTZ: Right. It is a coronavirus campaign. Katrina Pierson, thanks very much. Great to see you.
PIERSON: Thanks for having me.
KURTZ: We appreciate it. After the break, we will get an opposing viewpoint from the liberal side. And later, the president insists college football team should take the field, and the media are choosing up sides.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KURTZ: We just heard from Trump campaign. And joining us now from Syracuse is Jessica Tarlov of Bustle, a Fox News contributor.
We asked the Biden campaign for a guest for the third time in recent weeks. The campaign was not able to provide us one, but we will keep asking in the interest of balance.
Jessica, when Kamala Harris dropped out well before Iowa of the presidential race, the consensus among pundits, she had run a terrible campaign, erratic, mismanaged. She was even getting clobbered among black voters in her home state of California. How is she now being described by many of the same commentators as a political superwoman?
JESSICA TARLOV, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Well, I think it has a lot to do with the big boom that she's given Joe Biden's campaign this week. They raised 48 million in 48 hours, which is absolutely astounding.
If you look at the snap polls in a day or two after she was added to the ticket, you will see that moderate Democrats and liberal Democrats are both overjoyed at the selection.
And when you think about the target demographic that President Trump is doing the worse with, that is women, especially college-educated women and now suburban women, that's Kamala Harris's sweet spot. So I think she was absolutely the right pick and it makes a lot of sense that the voting public is reacting well to her selection.
KURTZ: Certainly, Democrats are. Now, obviously there's a lot of extra attention to the Kamala pick because Joe Biden is 77. But on some level, once a week or two of excitement fades, aren't the media exaggerating the importance even of this running mate and isn't the race going to come back to Trump versus Biden?
TARLOV: I would hope so. That is what the next four years -- four years are you better off than you were when President Trump came into office? It would be Joe Biden filling his shoes if he does get elected on November 3rd.
And Joe Biden is the one with the long record. He has those eight years as Obama-Biden Democrat that he can point to his accomplishments and say, do you want more of what I delivered before, or do you want the last four years again?
So I think it is absolutely about Joe Biden, that his age is relevant. Ronald Reagan was the oldest president in the White House. He left at the age of 77, where Joe Biden is now. It does make a difference to be thinking about it.
And I, with the selection of Kamala Harris, really saw this as passing of the torch to some degree. She's 55 year's old. She's more progressive than Joe Biden is though she is on his ticket and they will be running on his moderate policies. So Joe Biden is signalling to younger voters, to the next generation of Democrats --
KURTZ: Right.
TARLOV: -- this is who is going to be in charge of your party.
KURTZ: Now, what about some media outlets and journalists and commentators who are describing Senator Harris as a moderate despite the fact that during a campaign, she went left, she backed Bernie's Medicare for All? Doesn't that show a kind of a left-leaning viewpoint by the mainstream media?
TARLOV: I've never denied the fact that there is a left-leaning viewpoint amongst the mainstream media and that is problematic that often opinion columnists and journalists, reporters get conflated, right? Reporters are not supposed to have opinions. They are supposed to report the news.
But I think what they were reflecting upon is a couple of things. Kampala Harris started off, as you pointed out in your segment with Katrina Pierson, endorsing Medicare for All but then moved away from that. We do need to have a private option.
She was for the Green New Deal but she has joined Joe Biden's ticket. She's for his more moderate climate policies, making sure first and foremost that we re-enter the Paris Accord.
So I think that's what they are referring to, also the fact -- and it's incredibly important for the historic nature of this ticket -- that she is a black woman. And if you look at black Democratic voters, they are some of our most moderate and conservative voters. I think that they are speaking to that, that she hopefully will connect as Joe Biden has with this more moderate core of our party.
KURTZ: But do you think the media basically were really pushing the former vice president to pick as his number two a woman of color? Because there were just all of these stories out, he picked a highly qualified white running mate to be this great disappointment. Were the media now celebrating the results of that pressure campaign?
TARLOV: I think it is two parts. I think that there is the historic nature of this which matters a tremendous amount. You have the daughter of immigrants.
I mean, she's the true embodiment of the American story, right, that this is possible, that civil rights activists who came from India and Jamaica could have a daughter, she could rise up and be an A.G., United States senator, and now potentially a vice president and the first black woman to hold that role.
So I think they are celebrating the historic nature of that and for good reason. I think they are also rightly commenting on the fact that representation matters, especially in the Democratic Party. And for years, Democrats have been playing lip service to our core voting bloc, which is
black women, and that they needed to be represented.
But I would say more than the press, what mattered were those two open letters from prominent black women and prominent black men that said that we need to have a black V.P. candidate. And I think that's really what pushed Joe Biden over the edge to ensure that this was an African-American pick.
KURTZ: All right. I am going to go out on a limb and say that you are on board with the Kamala Harris selection. Jessica Tarlov, thanks very much for joining us.
TARLOV: I have all my swag coming. Thanks, Howie.
(LAUGHTER)
KURTZ: Still to come, with huge headlines over major college football conferences cancelling their season, the president is pushing back against that. Stay with us.
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KURTZ: President Trump is known for making sports a hot pot in cultural issue and he did it again when college football's Big Ten and Pac-12 conferences announced they're cancelling their fall seasons.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: We want to get football in colleges. These are young, strong people. They won't have a big problem with the China virus. So we want to see college football start and hopefully a lot of great people are going to be out there.
LAURA INGRAHAM, FOX NEWS HOST: We have a lot of people, mostly Democrats, who also want to take college football away from the country, citing, of course, concerns about COVID.
STEVE SCHMIDT, MSNBC POLITICAL ANALYST: When we look at the lack of sports and college football, every America is feeling lost and the right to blame the person who is responsible for it, Donald Trump.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KURTZ: Joining us now is Griff Jenkins, a Fox News correspondent and certified sports fan. Look, some college football athletes want to play. Many of the big schools are concluding it is just too dangerous in this environment. But is it fair to blame this on the president?
GRIFF JENKINS, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Howie, good morning. Let me tell you, I'm not only just certified, I went to an SEC school, my daughter goes to University of Georgia, and there is nothing more synonymous with the fall than college football coming back, and the SEC football is religion, it's a way of life.
But here is the deal, what you're seeing now is the president as the SEC and the ACC and the Big 12 also saying they're going to try and find a way to play as opposed to the Big 12 and the Pac-10.
You're seeing the president use this as a political issue, trying to say, I'm for football and those guys don't want it, therefore, I'm on the right side of this issue. But the honest truth is we just don't know. We don't know for sure the SEC or any other league is going to get to play.
We would have Alabama and Georgia kicking the season off in early September. That would be the biggest game of the season. But there's no indication that's actually going to happen.
KURTZ: Yeah, it's like the debate over reopening of the schools. We want it to happen but the question is can it happen safely.
Now, USA Today columnist wrote down, are you really willing to gamble on the life of a 19-year-old who is not getting paid as a student but could make millions in the NFL, especially when the virus can produce long-term heart complications? So these are difficult issues.
JENKINS: Well, they are difficult issues, and it is worth pointing out that these are not athletes getting paid. Obviously, we have seen in these sports leagues, some have fared well like the NBA and others have not like baseball.
But in the case of the colleges, we are seeing coaches say we are going to have, you know, approach of we are going to do what we think is best for our students and athletes. And after all, they are students, and so whether or not these programs can have protocols and the things in place to protect them, we will find out.
But, you know, these are, at the end of the day, kids trying to get an education first and plays sports second.
KURTZ: Right. I understand how frustrating it must be. You have your shot for four years and then suddenly you can't play the season because it is cancelled. I understand how -- just how frustrating that is.
Also, you mentioned the National Basketball Association, which has had more success in controlling COVID in that Orlando bubble. President Trump is not too happy with the NBA. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: When you look at the NBA and what's happening with the NBA and their poor ratings, I don't know. I can't imagine why, but they didn't stand, they didn't show respect to our flag, they didn't show respect to our national anthem, and maybe that's having an impact.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KURTZ: Do the president's detractors have a point when they say, well, you know, he's criticizing a league that is mostly black? But on the other hand, he says many viewers are turned off by these social injustice slogans and the painting of Black Lives Matter on the court. Your take?
JENKINS: Did some research. The NBA is down four percent from the league's pre-hiatus period right now although they are about to go in to their playoffs. So, we will see. But bottom line is that, obviously, attitude nationwide has shifted.
A recent Yahoo poll, Howie, said that it's OK to kneel. Fifty-two percent of the responses said it was OK to kneel compared to the same poll taken in 2018 when only 35 percent supported it. So, we will certainly see what happens once the NFL starts and as the NBA goes into their playoffs.
KURTZ: That's a real shift in public attitude. At the same time, I always worry when sports becomes more about politics.
Griff Jenkins, thanks for coming off the bench where it is great to see you.
(LAUGHTER)
KURTZ: That is it for this edition of Media Buzz. I'm Howard Kurtz. We hope you will like our Facebook page. We post my daily columns there. Let us continue the conversation on Twitter at Howard Kurtz. Check out my podcast, "Media Buzzmeter." You can subscribe in lots of ways, Apple iTunes, Google podcast, on your Amazon device.
Here is the plug for the show. We are back here next Sunday, 11:00 Eastern. You know the time by now. We will see you all then with the latest Buzz.
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END
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