Axelrod: Harris Gives a ‘Kind of’ ‘Word Salad’ ‘When She Doesn’t Want to Answer a Question’ Like on Israel

By Ian Hanchett

On Wednesday, CNN Senior Political Commentator and former Obama adviser David Axelrod stated that when 2024 Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris “doesn’t want to answer a question, her habit is to kind of go to word salad city,” and she did that a few times during her town hall with CNN, including on Israel.

• Axelrod said that he thought that Harris’ performance at CNN’s town hall was “mixed” and “she was very strong coming out of the gate. And she obviously came with a purpose, which, she wanted to — they want to shine a focus on this latest chapter with the Hitler story of John Kelly, but, generally, anti-democratic behavior and the threat that represents. And she, obviously, was well-prepared for that. She was very strong on — as she has been — on abortion rights, because she feels passionately about it. She can be clinical on some of these economic issues. She was great on the long-term care for the elderly to help people in the sandwich generation.”

  He added, “But the things that would concern me, and then I — she did one thing at the end that I thought was really important — the things that would concern me [are] when she doesn’t want to answer a question, 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. And so, 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. … But she said something at the end that I thought should be, actually, a frame…she said, he’ll have an enemies list, I’ll have a to-do list, and the to-do list is going to be the concerns you mentioned tonight. I think that is a fundamental argument here, what are their respective motivations, and who’s going to actually work on the stuff that is going to impact positively on your life?”

  Later, Axelrod also praised her statements on housing and her faith.