Conservative columnist Jonah Goldberg dubbed Vice President Kamala Harris as President Biden’s “worst political decision” of his presidency in Saturday comments.
Goldberg made the argument during a panel discussion on CNN’s “The Chris Wallace Show.”
CNN anchor Wallace was detailing the results of a focus group results to a panel. He said the Republican Voters Against Trump, an anti-Trump outside group, found that swing voters “don’t like” Harris and another focus group done by the Democratic National Committee (DNC) said the VP “rubs some people the wrong way.”
Goldberg, the editor-in-chief of the online news outlet “The Dispatch,” argued Harris's likeability issue could hinder Biden’s reelection efforts.
“I think she’s a pretty big drag. I think she was arguably Biden’s worst political decision of his presidency to pick her in the first place,” Goldberg said in Saturday comments on CNN, highlighted by Mediaite.
“And, one of the special reasons that she’s a drag is, Biden’s age concerns people,” he said. “They worry that he can’t fill a term. They worry that he’s not up to the job. And, so, the vice president matters more than they normally do.”
The Los Angeles Times columnist argued that Democrats should not nominate candidates who are in deep-blue states, citing concerns about the ability to persuade a broad swath of the electorate unless they are “once-in-a-generation talents” like former President Obama.
“I generally think going into the future that Democrats really should not nominate or front people who come from decidedly all-blue states unless they’re, like, once-in-a-generation talents, like Barack Obama,” Goldberg said. “Because Kamala Harris does not know how to talk to the center or to the right. She only really knows how to speak the language of the base of the party. And that’s 34% of the electorate.”
Wallace then cited the recent April Monmouth University poll which found that 55 percent of respondents disapproved of her job rating, a slight improvement from her previous 58 percent disapproval in the February iteration of the poll.
Tech journalist Kara Swisher, who was also on the panel along with journalist Lulu Garcia-Navarro and Washington Free Beacon’s editor-in-chief Eliana Johnson, said that Harris’ numbers do not matter since she will not be swapped for another candidate.
“It doesn’t really matter, she’s not going to be replaced,” Swisher said. “And they don’t like her. There’s lots of reasons they don’t like her, and I don’t think the vice president matters as much as people think. I don’t think they think about her unless…”
Wallace chimed in, saying it might matter more with Biden’s age.
“Yes, I get that. I get that, but, right now, I don’t think that’s the first thing they think about is her, necessarily,” Swisher said.
“I just think they’ve not liked her, she’s had a not successful vice presidency, although I don’t know what that means at all, because I don’t think people thought or Mike Pence very much or Dan Quayle, or anybody else. And, so, it doesn’t matter because she’s not going anywhere, he’s not going to replace her. Think about that. Think about the earthquake that would cause.”
