Former Obama advisor David Axelrod appeared to downplay his criticism of Vice President Kamala Harris’ "word salad city" answers during the CNN town hall Wednesday night.
"You mentioned that some of her responses to tough questions, specifically on Israel and on immigration, resulted in ‘word salad city,’ essentially reverting to talking points. By his own admission, Donald Trump weaves when responding to certain questions, and it seems to make no discernible difference to his supporters. So I’m wondering how you think Harris can manage what seemed to be to very different standards," CNN anchor Boris Sanchez asked Axelrod on Thursday.
Axelrod agreed Harris is held to a higher standard than former President Trump and emphasized all the positives of Harris’s answers that night before acknowledging his comment.
"Yes, she’s in a more difficult position because she has basically had to introduce herself to the American people in 90 days. Donald Trump, we’ve seen for years, and he does get…there’s no doubt about it. Boris, you listen to a Donald Trump rally, and it is an incredible flight because you never know where he’s going or where he’s going to land or how one point connects to another. But that, in some ways, is priced into the stock of Donald Trump," Axelrod said.
AXELROD: HARRIS MOMENTUM LEANING HEAVILY ON ‘IRRATIONAL EXUBERANCE’
He continued, "Whereas people are really trying to get to know Kamala Harris, so her answers are being scrutinized more closely because people are looking for clues to who she is and where she’s going, and that puts additional pressure on her."
"I know that that particular piece of my analysis was quoted widely," Axelrod acknowledged. "I also talked about some of the strengths of her presentation, including when she said the difference between us is that he’s going to come to the office with an enemies list, and I’m going to come with a to-do list about how we work on those things, those concerns that we’ve discussed here tonight. I thought that was powerful and compelling and really fundamental argument in the final ten days of this campaign."
He added how that argument "really struck a chord" in him and hoped she would continue to use it on the campaign trail.
Axelrod went viral following the town hall after conceding that Harris went off into "word salad city" answers to questions she didn’t want to answer.
"The thing that would concern me is when she doesn’t want to answer a question," Axelrod said. "Her habit is to kind of go to ‘word salad city,’ and she did that on a couple of answers. 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."
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He continued, "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. Sometimes you have to concede things and she didn‘t concede much."
