Just four weeks after replacing Joe Biden at the top of the Democratic ticket, Kamala Harris gave her acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention on Thursday night.
Her remarks, which were among the shortest in history, did little to clarify where the vice president stands on policy, but they were competently delivered and well-received by the audience in Chicago. Also fans? Many in the corporate media who wasted no time fawning over the speech.
On Friday’s show, Megyn was joined by Charles C.W. Cooke and Rich Lowry of National Review to discuss Harris’ performance and the media reaction to it.
The Speech
Harris took the stage at the United Center in Chicago as rumors were swirling that Beyoncé was gearing up to perform for the crowd. The speculation turned out to be false, which left the vice president as the main event.
She spoke for just 38 minutes, sharing vague anecdotes about her childhood growing up in a “working class” suburb of San Francisco and lightly dipping her toe into the policy waters. Harris spoke of a “new way forward” – despite the fact that she is the sitting vice president – and suggested her opponent, Donald Trump, is selfish. That furthered an attack made by Oprah Winfrey and Michelle Obama before her.
There was little to no mention of the poorly received ‘price gouging’ economic plan Harris rolled out late last week, and the official Harris-Walz website continues to feature no campaign platform.
The Reaction
Not that anyone seemed to notice. “I mean, she really said almost nothing,” Megyn said. “She delivered it well, especially for Kamala Harris… but the reaction to what we saw as a fairly anodyne speech… was beyond spin. It was almost gaslighting.”
Over on MSNBC, Rachel Maddow deemed the speech unforgettable. “You’re going to remember where you were on this night,” she said. “This is an inflection point in history.”
Her colleague, former White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, was similarly wowed. “She has this magical, charismatic quality in person,” Psaski said. “The public has to see it in order to get you elected, and tonight… she showed the public that.”
CNN’s Jake Tapper compared the vice president to Barack Obama. “It was a remarkable address, one that I’ve never seen her give quite like this before – a very, very powerful speech,” he gushed. “You gotta go back, I think to Barack Obama in 2008 for a Democratic speech like this, perhaps even a speech like this at all.”
Not to be outdone, Jonathan Karl of ABC News suggested the remarks transcended politics. “She gave a speech… that if you take out that section on abortion rights, much of this speech could have been delivered at… a Republican convention before Trump,” he claimed. “This is a Kamala Harris that sounded a little bit more like Maggie Thatcher or Ronald Reagan.”
Cooke said the reaction was overwrought given the lack of substance. “She read from a teleprompter, and she was better than she has been,” he noted. “She also said nothing. I think this is one thing those people are missing is that the reason that it went okay was that she said nothing.”
In Lowry’s view, Harris has been “reading a campaign from a teleprompter” and doing it “competently.” So while the speech was “fine,” it did little to change the perception of her. “It was the best speech she has ever given, but that is obviously an extremely low bar,” he explained. “Kamala is a manufactured production. She is more of a complete cipher than we’ve ever had in recent presidential politics… We don’t hear anything… in her own words.”
Media Malpractice
To that point, it has been 33 days since Harris started running for president and she has still not held a formal press conference or given a sit-down interview. After initially promising one by the end of the month, the Harris-Walz campaign now claims the vice president will talk to the press when she is ready.
If you think the establishment media is concerned about the lack of access, think again. Late Thursday, NBC News’ Kelly O’Donnell – the outgoing president of the White House Correspondents Association – proudly shared this exchange she had with Harris and her husband Doug Emhoff backstage:
Not to be outdone, the Today Show boasted about this moment between NBC News Chief White House Correspondent Peter Alexander and the couple on X (at the 3:23 mark):
Megyn called the display an embarrassment. “You have one job and it is to cover the White House and now this presidential race… and you failed,” she said. “You always have to have a substantive question up your sleeve in case you get access, but it was… a congratulatory pat on the back… just like we saw all week. It’s like, ‘let’s enjoy the coronation’”
You can check out Megyn’s full interview with Cooke and Lowry by tuning in to episode 869 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s Triumph (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.