In what transformed from unusual to utterly ridiculous, it took Kamala Harris an unfathomable 40 days since Joe Biden withdrew from the 2024 race and endorsed her for her to actually sit down and talk to the media.

For any younger readers who don’t remember how politics used to work, here’s a glimpse: in the weeks following presidential conventions, the major party nominees and their running mates would tour the media circuit, regularly appearing on Meet the Press, Face the Nation, and This Week, and on political shows on CNN, Fox, and MSNBC. But this time around, there was a formidable Democratic contender, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who at one point polled at a very respectable 20 percent. He hails from the most famous Democratic political family in American history. He often does up to ten interviews a day, and is willing to speak to anyone about anything, and without preparation. He relishes interviews. Yet the mainstream media ignored him, as did the unbefittingly named Democratic Party. But all those news stations and many more would flock to Kamala like seagulls going after food scraps and give her all the time and attention she wants – except that’s exactly what she’s trying to avoid.
The morning of the 40th day, August 29, the day on which Kamala’s prerecorded interview with CNN would be broadcast, I visited her official campaign page, along with that of her principal opponent, Republican nominee Donald Trump. I had to dodge some land mines – phony sites with strikingly similar email addresses to the real ones, and appearing higher up on Internet search lists – trying to steal my money or hack my information. The genuine sites are: kamalaharris.com and donaldjtrump.com.
As one might expect, both sites open to a donation page. But that’s where the similarities end. Trump’s home page features a link called Platform, and one click later, his agenda appears front and center:

1. Seal the border and stop the migrant invasion
2. Carry out the largest deportation operation in American history
3. End inflation, and make America affordable again
4. Make America the dominant energy producer in the world, by far!
5. Stop outsourcing, and turn the United States into a manufacturing superpower
6. Large tax cuts for workers, and no tax on tips!
7. Defend our Constitution, our Bill of Rights, and our fundamental freedoms, including freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and the right to keep and bear arms
8. Prevent World War Three, restore peace in Europe and in the Middle East, and build a great iron dome missile defense shield over our entire country – all made in America
9. End the weaponization of government against the American people
10. Stop the migrant crime epidemic, demolish the foreign drug cartels, crush gang violence, and lock up violent offenders
11. Rebuild our cities, including Washington, DC, making them safe, clean, and beautiful again
12. Strengthen and modernize our military, making it, without question, the strongest and most powerful in the world
13. Keep the U.S. dollar as the world’s reserve currency
14. Fight for and protect Social Security and Medicare with no cuts, including no changes to the retirement age
15. Cancel the electric vehicle mandate and cut costly and burdensome regulations
16. Cut federal funding for any school pushing critical race theory, radical gender ideology, and other inappropriate racial, sexual, or political content on our children
17. Keep men out of women’s sports
18. Deport pro-Hamas radicals and make our college campuses safe and patriotic again
19. Secure our elections, including same day voting, voter identification, paper ballots, and proof of citizenship
20. Unite our country by bringing it to new and record levels of success

There’s also a link to a 16-page version, expanding on all these platform points in greater detail.

And here is Kamala’s platform, as listed on her page: _____________. Nothing. Zero. Not a word. By the time you read this, things may have changed. But as of August 29 (again, that’s 40 days after Biden endorsed her), she had absolutely nothing to share about what she plans to do if elected president. As Trump’s running mate J.D. Vance says, Kamala’s “not running a campaign, she’s running a movie,” referring to her rare and carefully packaged press appearances, replete with teleprompters, innocuous questions, and running mate Tim Walz by her side. Talk about not demonstrating the ability to stand on her own two feet. And for Democratic candidates, CNN isn’t even the lion’s den, it’s more the sheep’s pasture.

Coming off a good job moderating the June 27 Biden-Trump debate, CNN’s Dana Bash had turned in a respectable effort interviewing Harris and Walz. She didn’t throw hardballs, but they weren’t softballs either. There were moments when Bash could’ve been a bit more persistent – such as to point out that the jobs Harris talks about creating were largely based on people going back to work after the pandemic subsided. It’s not that Bash should’ve been a vicious, obnoxious attack log, like Meet the Press’ Kristen Welker. There’s a gentler way to dig deeper; Tim Russert was the master of it, and Bash would do herself a favor to watch old clips of his interviews.

Harris looked and sounded good and Walz continues to exude warmth. Having been VP for almost four years, in a country where porous borders, rampant crime, and wokeness run amok have only gotten worse, she did a heck of a job defending the Biden-Harris record with a straight face. She’ll fool a lot of Americans. Who knows – maybe she doesn’t need a platform after all. Just smoke, mirrors, and none of the Trump acerbity.