Harris-Walz interview: what did we learn? With Jon Levine

hello and welcome to the Americano show on spectator TV I'm Matt McDonald Freddy gray is away this week we are talking to John LaVine from the New York Post about carela Harris and Tim Waltz and their joint interview on CNN on Thursday night John thank you so much for joining us first off I was just wondering what your overall thoughts were on Harris's performance last night well I mean the the bar for our discourse is now so that like I mean yeah she got through it and there was there was no obvious face plant there was no obvious Gaff and Tim Waltz just kind of sat there smiling most of it um but I I don't really feel like she said anything I feel like it's a great interview if you're cooking and it's on in the background and it's kind of white noise but if you actually listen to it as I did she would be ask questions and then she would say well let me be very clear and then she would go on a platitudinous mess where she wouldn't explain anything you know do you still support fracking well my values haven't changed I mean she actually did say that she's now against she's now against she's in favor of fracking but um she she was very on on many different points she just sort of would ramble about values and about Vibes and about how we need to turn the page on the era and she said very little despite the interview being almost 30 minutes so the opening question that danab bash uh asked was you know a fairly typical question that presidents and presidential candidates get asked what would you do on day one well there are a number of things I will tell you first and foremost one of my highest priorities is to do what we can to support and strengthen the middle class um when I look at the aspirations the goals the Ambitions of the American people I think that um people are ready for a new way forward um um in a way that generations of Americans have been fueled by by hope and by optimism I think sadly in the last decade um we have had in the former president someone who is really been pushing an agenda and an environment that is about diminishing um the character and the strength of who we are as Americans uh really dividing our nation and I think people are ready to turn the page on that so what would you do day one day one it's going to be about one implementing my plan for what I call an opportunity economy I've already laid out a number of um proposals in that regard which include what we're going to do to bring down um the cost of everyday Goods what we're going to do to invest in America's small businesses what we're going to do to invest in families for example extending the child tax credit to $6,000 for families for the first year of their child's life to help themy buy a car seat to help them buy baby clothes a crib um there's the work that we're going to do that is about investing in the American family around affordable housing a big issue in our country right now so there are a number of things on day one like you say she didn't really have a solid answer to that question she as a policy she mentioned the child's tax credit um do you think that the approach like maybe she's boring perhaps from K stor in Britain which is be as vague as possible um and then hope that you know people are going to vote for you because you're a blank slate and they dislike the other party or candidate more partly I think partly it's also practical like she she just kind of showed up in this job a few days ago a month ago maybe um she hasn't had time to develop wellth thought out policies and also to what you just said policies can be very dangerous if you have you know 100 page policy proposals on 25 different subjects you put those on your website that opens up opportunities for people to go through them and say well this is crazy that's insane that's not going to work this is comes from this communist what whatever it may be I think what you said is correct she's she's trying to kind of be a tabularasa where Americans can project what they want her to be and then that will also give her a lot more freedom of movement if she does become president because she doesn't have a lot of Hard Promises about different things to begin with I don't know what she'll do on day one I heard something about the price fixing plan because epidemic of price gouging which not inflation it's price gouging um there's really not a lot there and and by the way the federal government making housing more affordable that's another thing that was touched upon it's exactly what led to the housing crisis in 2008 it's exactly the home ownership society and they did it through multiple administrations and they got people buying homes and investing in properties that weren't qualified to do so and it overinflated that market and I just feel like we're on a we're on a road we're just we're just cycling back I didn't really hear any new ideas at all so I suppose the risk is you can almost see a repeat of what happened with Biden as in Biden ran and won in 2020 as the alternative to a chaos candidate but then the unintended consequences of some of his major policy achievements are have become the main issues of of this cycle right so you have you know the signing of the American Rescue uh plan which you know believe is you know proven to be a main uh source of the inflation which America is is currently facing right now and so I suppose once again you know you're presenting this situation where you could have the unintended consequence of attempting to control prices at the grocery store being a that whether that could be the thing that scares the horses and upsets the economy uh once again in a in another fashion um I guess uh one thing which was a slight newsline that emerged um from the interview was Dana Bash asked if she would appoint if she would consider appointing a republican to her cabinet and she said yes I would which isn't yes I will or I promise or I pledge to but she expressed an interest in doing that and she said I I've spent my career uh inviting diversity of opinion what did you make of that what what kind of Republican do you think is likely to join a Harris Wood's cabinet it's not like a groundbreaking thing to have a republ in a Democrat Administration or you know the opposite I President Obama had Bob Gates I remember as Secretary of Defense and I I I think Bush Jr I forget his name but he was Secretary of of Transportation it was it was it was some democrat I forget his name but um you know it's not I mean these are bureaucratic jobs you know I think I remember the Democrat um I think it I forget his name but I remember him being like highways or not democrat or republican they're just highways like you know a lot of these jobs are not really partisan jobs they're like dog catcher in a small town they're for specific purposes and I don't you yeah I'm not particularly moved or impressed that she'll consider a republican for her cabinet that doesn't indicate she's a moderate that doesn't indicate that she wants to be bipartisan I think there's no actual evidence that she wants to do any of that and what evidence does exist suggests that she's in in a very very Progressive uh uh liberal as she herself had said as latest 2019 one other interesting point obviously KLA and Tim Waltz have both been kind of siloed off and away from the press for the majority of the last six weeks right as in they've not really been taking questions the last time where she kind of had a consequential interaction with the media was when she went out to defend Biden after his June 27th debate performance and so you end up with he said he was fine yeah she he which clearly he is which is why is still the nominee right I mean but so you danab bash obviously had this kind of very limited period of time at which she has to you know attempt to get responses to all of these various different news lines and news stories that have emerged over the past uh you know two months basically um one of those was of course the story about Tim Waltz and his various misrepresentations with regard to his military record uh whether you know he discussed you know his remarks where he refers to um weapons that I held in in conflicts when obviously he served in the National Guard but he only got As far as Italy rather than Afghanistan um and his response to that in one of his few answers was to basically attribute him misspeaking to him speaking passionately about topics that he really cares about Governor wal the uh country is just starting to get to know you I want to ask uh you a question about how you've described your service in the National Guard you said that you carried weapons in War but you have never deployed actually in a war zone a campaign official said that you misspoke did you well first of all I'm incredibly proud I've done 24 years of wearing uniform of this country equally proud of my service in a public school classroom whether it's Congress or uh or the governor uh my record speaks for itself but I think uh people are coming yet to know me I I speak like they do um I speak candidly I wear my emotions on my sleeves and uh I speak especially passionately about uh about our children being shot in schools and around around guns so uh I think people know me they know who I am they know where uh where my heart is and again my record has been out there for over 40 years to to speak for itself and the the idea that you said that you were in war did you missp speak as the campaign has said yeah I said we were talking about in this case this was after school shooting the ideas of carrying these weapons of war and uh my wife the English to my grammar is not always correct but again if it's not this it's an attack on my children for showing love for me or it's an attack on my dog uh I'm not going to do that and the one thing I'll never do is I'll never demean another member's service in any way I never have uh and I never will I was wondering you know that's been a certainly on the right in America Tim Waltz and what he hasn't been entirely truthful on has been a major talking point for the last month I'm wondering if you think that he did enough in that interview to to bat down those those concerns you know I I I got I have news for the right no one people don't vote for vice president so whatever if Tim Waltz spoke about his military career incorrectly and he did lie about his military career I think there's no question about that it's not going to matter number one that's not an issue that like affects my day-to-day and no one votes for the vice president this is a race between Kamala and Trump you know a much bigger story is Kamala may be possibly misrepresenting her work at McDonald's yeah because hey it affects the principle which I said is what Americans care about and it goes to the same character issues about truthfulness and honesty that you alluded to with Tim Waltz and I I I would like to see that thread pulled a lot more because I just don't I think there's very limited mileage in attacking the vice president of either party I don't think the JD Vance's weird stuff is going to stick either because again it's the vice president and okay JD Vance is weird what does that do for grocery prices what does that do for the migrants that have taken over Randall's Island I don't know here in New York I don't know so if it's these are these are very surface level issues that you and I and like Twitter people care about I don't know that they'll resonate big picture Trump has kind of struggled to find his footing in knowing how to run against Kamala and one of the major instance of of him doing so was when he showed up to the National Association of black journalists conference and uh you know questioned whether whether Caro is in fact black saying I thought she was Indian um right and Bash brought that up um and Harris's kind of chose to respond by saying that that you know Trump is using the same old tied Playbook right which I suppose we are supposed to extrapolate from that it's like his birtherism with Obama right it's the only way that he can uh he can deal with and that and did you get that as well that we're kind of supposed to think of car therefore as like an Obama successor in the same light well if we're supposed to think of a Oka as an Obama successor we've Fallen many many pegs down from Obama because Obama is one of the great communicators in the Democratic party I remember even his speech at the convention just blew everyone out of the water and I mean if he were to run again now I I think it'd be no question he he'd probably still win and not by the strength of any policy position he's just so good at winning people over I mean I'm convinced he could sell you the wallet out of your own pants if you want um I I don't think Trump should necessar be talking about how black Kamala is I I don't think that's necessarily productive I know I'm not the first person to make that observation look I mean I think you run against Kamala as you might run against Biden with a little less focus on the Sleepy Joe and the and the cognitive issues there's two issues in this race there's two issues in this race maybe three issues the economy and the Border those are the two that favor Trump and the third I I would say there's a third is abortion and that favors her um but Trump is beating her by double digits in every single poll if you look at the cross tabs on the economy and the border for who is better able to handle the the crisis on both of those fronts and and she is beating him on abortion so it'll be a big question over where what when Americans go to vote what what do they prioritize more if you're very concerned about the economy but you're also very concerned about the abortion what is your priority issue there I we don't have an answer for that yet but we will in November I I'm glad he raised the kind of by 's you know mental accurity issues should we call them um because that was a you know that was a topic addressed later on in the interview where you know danab bash effectively asks like what did you know and when and then Cara responds by basically talking about how great a public servant Joe Biden was for three and a half minutes and then that question responding not really followed up on um do do you expect do you expect KLA to be held to account on that question at any point yeah I do maybe at the debate Trump can hold her to account but he is the only one she obviously will not do an interview with Fox News I doubt she'll do an interview with spectator or with any uh institution or publication that deviates ever so slightly from the prevailing line so if she does another interview it'll be maybe with like a Rachel mattow type figure or someone and it no the short answer is no one is ever going to hold this woman to account except Trump at the debate and that is his most important task and it will not be a walk in the park she's not Joe Biden this woman is a prosecutor she knows how to debate and and and I saw what I could glean from last night is when she gets questions at the debate she's going to Glide right through them she's going to cut right through them like butter like not a real answer but also not a mistake and it's going to be up to Trump to prosecute and say you didn't answer that D D D D D and the mics are going to be muted now so he's going to have to do it in a structured and Order way no interrupting but it it is the debate is critically critically important for Trump to make that case we would love to have vice president Harris on spectator TV I'll just say that right now I'm sure she's watching I'm sure clearly clearly she she watches every episode um I was wondering what you thought about the brief kind of Israel Palestine section where obviously I think you know she's got some critic some people uh don't really know how to read kamla I think there's a suspicion on the left that she will be more sympathetic to the Palestinians in Gaza than Biden would but then at the same time her comments yesterday I feel like were more she ruled out the possibility of you know any any kind of arms embargo or or sending fewer weapons to Israel I wondered what you made of that response she just like a miasma of different positions because it's like you've got her old Progressive views and those are all in the toilet now she's got a whole bunch of new moderate views and you know about Israel okay yeah I mean she she sounded really good on Israel in the in the interview but I know because I read the news every day that she has been a constant force in this Administration trying to push President Biden to be tougher on Israel to talk more about the innocent Palestinians and the the innocent Palestinians and and and to basically be more sympathetic to the concerns of Hamas and to she called for a ceasefire before President Biden so I see her actions in this Administration as what she would probably pursue if she is President and they're considerably to the left of Joe Biden they're much more sympathetic to Hamas and I mean I just think like if you've been paying attention I don't know how you can watch what she said on CNN last night and believe her to kind of continue that thought like what do you think that means that uh Harris foreign policy towards Iran would look like well you know it's funny the Democrats are kind of wedded to Iran in a primal way because of the Iran deal they did this Obama invested enormous amounts of political capital in the Iran deal and a broader rapoon um with Iran in an attempt to affect a kind of realignment of interests in the Middle East and remember it's not just Obama it's also Biden since he was vice president at the time which means like it's been Biden's policy to never totally detach the United States from Iran which makes it comm's policy because she's vice president right now so she's inheriting a lot of Iran baggage and I don't know that as long as Obama is still like basically the Eminence Greece of the party that Democrats can ever really decouple themselves from Iran there will always be this feeling of oh we could have done it if not for Trump and we could still do it and there's so you know the way to deal with Iran I think and I think most people not wetted to the Iran deal is you need to isolate this country and you basically do a deal between Israel and the Sunni Arabs and you and you sort of you contain it to use an old Soviet term and and I think and that effectuates long term you know pressure on the regime which could maybe lead to its collapse and something more favorable to us and Western interests but I mean that's just that's not the view of Democrats the view of Democrats is you win over Iran by giving them stuff by enriching their population and by extension enriching the Ayatollah and the you know revolutionary guard and all those forces it's just wrong and and you know they're in the streets chanting death to America every single day and that won't change if suddenly they can afford sports cars and have Whole Foods I I don't think that's changing and I think we're that's it's it's a it's a terrible error at the heart of democratic foreign policy thinking and I think harus will probably buy into it should she be president and she will continue efforts to make reproach man with Iran and it will continue to be wrong and it will continue to be dangerous and it will continue not to work I don't know the Whole Foods mac and cheese could is pretty good that that could end Wars as far as you know it's it's a broader issue of neoliberal thinking which is oh if only people have money they'll become Pro West Wern they'll they'll suddenly become Democratic I mean the right also has people that subscribe to this it's why we've been so wrong about China for many many years which oh if China becomes wealthy they'll obviously become Democratic they'll obviously become pro-western and you've seen the exact opposite the regime that's been enriched has doubled down on censorship and and they use all that Capital to oppress their population even more and so you got to understand democracy is like a very Western concept Greece enlightenment we have here it's very unusual if you and I have a disagreement it's like okay whatever in other parts of the world it's like if you and I have a disagreement I have to kill you or you have to kill me and that's just much more of the prevailing view the fact that we can like talk about things and no one has to kill each other is is very much not a natural way of human behavior and it's something that we get because we're inheritors of Enlightenment tradition finally I just wanted to uh touch on a an old friend of yours Robert F Kennedy Jr who obviously heard of him made the decision to drop out in swing states where he where possible and then kind of endorse and back Trump um I was wondering how like what effect you think that that could have on the race and talk a bit about RFK as a phenomenon because obviously he's kind of as a success he's been a a success story of people's lack of faith in institutions right whether that's public health or social media or the news um and obviously he has a number of fairly wacky opinions which I believe you can speak to so maybe tell tell us a bit about the the story you broke on him and then also what you think the the effect of him lining up behind Trumble be well it's funny RFK Jr is not a young man I think he's 70 he's been around a very long time and he's been singing a lot of the same songs on vaccines and other issues for a very long time it's only recently that Americans are giving him a second look and that's because of all the lies we were told by our official institutions about Corona virus and and this is why you know when government lies to you and when the official institutions lie to you it's so so devastating because it allows people with alternative views who might not necessarily be grounded in in reality to rise up and and say look I told you so um when I was in New York I I'm in New York when Robert F Kennedy was in New York they organized a dinner between him and a bunch of reporters it was an on the record dinner um and I you know I didn't even want to go I had a migraine that day I was tired and the organizer was like please come everyone wants to see you and I said I'll only go if I could sit next to him because I've been at a lot of these dinners and you don't you just they're at the other side of the table you can't even ask him anything and I didn't just want to get a question in during The Question time I wanted to I wanted to speak to him like when we were eating um and the organizer was like like sure I can make that happen so Flash Forward we're on the Upper East Side here in Manhattan and he's talking a lot of stuff it was it was mostly him monologuing about different things and you know when he speaks it's almost like you're just breathing in nitrous oxide you know because he's just saying one like yeah man the moon landing totally fake he didn't talk about the moonland I don't even remember what he was talking about but I do remember specifically him getting a question about um the Corona virus which is a subject he likes to discourse on and he said and I will paraphrase some version of well we know it was a bio weapon engineered in a lab and it's very interesting that the it was it was designed so that it would be deadlier for black people um and it would not be as deadly for Chinese people and for ashkanazi Jews and everyone's just kind of rolling with this and I sort of like Snapped out of it and you could even there's a video of this which which the organizer of the event sent to me for the express purpose of publishing for this on the record dinner and and when I asked for it and you can see my face kind of have this Revelation like what did I just hear and and and then I got the tape back and it was what I just heard now I asked you question let's assume it was a bioweapon and the Chinese were creating a bioweapon I understand why the Chinese might want to engineer a bioweapon that didn't hit Chinese people I get that what I don't understand is why the Chinese would want to engineer bioweapon that would spare ashkanazi Jews now people say oh you falsely imputed him as being anti-semitic no I did not and I don't know I don't I actually I don't think Robert F Kennedy is anti-Semitic I do believe that he has heard things and has been in environments and this is clearly a theory or an idea he picked up somewhere that certainly has an anti-semitic origin because I can't think of a reason why the Chinese would create a bioweapon that spared Jewish people unless there was some conspiracy that we were ADV by the way who are the first people to get the vaccine the first people to get it Israel Israel vaccinated their society before anyone they were doing two and three when when we were still on one so you know certainly that not an action you take if your people have natural immunity so how helpful do you think that is to Trump though the r the RFK and the RFK kind of like crunchy machine right I think that there are RFK voters out there and to the extent that like I I don't think someone who's voting for Trump is going to say I'm not voting for him now because RFK is backing him I think he'll probably bring over some number of Voters and these are very very tight States in many cases and you need every vote you can get so I do think it's it's I don't know how help F but it is certainly helpful and it's certainly better than not having his endorsement I agree John thank you so much this is great