Media top headlines June 30
CNN and MSNBC's ratings collapsing, Ilhan Omar telling CNN she doesn't regret equating US and Israel with the Taliban, and an MSNBC legal analyst praising Attorney General Garland for personally scooping ice cream for DOJ employees round out today's top media headlines
New York Times columnist Ezra Klein feels President Biden is making life too difficult for Vice President Kamala Harris and feels she should be given simpler tasks to enhance her reputation, but critics on both sides quickly found problems with his argument.
"Kamala Harris will probably be the Democratic nominee in 24 or 28. Biden's team should be giving her portfolios that make it likelier she'll win. Instead they're giving her impossible problems that will likely become liabilities," Klein tweeted.
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Klein was responding to a Gray Lady guest essay by Fordham University political scientist Christina Greer headlined, "Dear Kamala Harris: It’s a Trap!"
The Times opinion piece claimed Harris is "taking on work that can easily backfire" and "right-wing commentators" are already judging her performance on issues like illegal immigration and voting reforms.
"Biden and his team aren’t giving her chances to get some wins and more experience on her ledger. Rather, it’s the hardest of the hard stuff," Greer wrote.
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"If she is somehow miraculously able to detangle the complex ‘immigration crisis,’ she will be heralded by some, but not all, as a success and worthy of the Democratic presidential nomination in 2024," Greer continued. "If she becomes only the latest leader (in either party) who cannot solve the problem, she specifically will be viewed as a failure."
Klein agreed with Greer’s analysis, sharing it to his 2.7 million followers and noting, "This seems right."
New York Times columnist Ezra Klein feels President Biden is making life too difficult for Vice President Kamala Harris.
Fox News contributor Joe Concha disagreed with Klein’s analysis because he feels "solid leaders" take on important challenges.
"Tackling difficult portfolios is what solid leaders do. As stated before, Harris’s abysmal (and noticeably apathetic) performance on the border crisis will play a huge role on how she’s judged as a candidate," Concha responded. "And she doesn’t have the personal attributes/likability to fall back on."
Others noted that pundits would also complain if the first female vice president was given simple tasks and wasn’t challenged. Some voices on the left thought Klein's take was sexist and patronizing.
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Greer's piece is the latest one in the Times to complain Harris is being judged too harshly.
Liberal scribe Frank Bruni, in a June 5 column headlined "Kamala Harris Can't Win," fretted she has "many stones being thrown at her" and also faced headwinds over her sex and race. He also wrote "she has never established sufficient popularity with voters nationally" and "hasn’t always been the most dexterous political operator."