Kamala Harris Goes After ABC Minutes After Democratic Debate Ends
Presidential hopeful Kamala Harris lashed out at ABC News on Thursday night, shortly after the third 2020 Democratic primary debate.
Harris was not pleased that the network’s lengthy debate in Houston, Texas, was entirely devoid of questions on abortion and “reproductive rights.”
“The #DemDebate was three hours long,” Harris wrote on Twitter, “and not one question about abortion or reproductive rights.”
The #DemDebate was three hours long and not one question about abortion or reproductive rights.
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) September 13, 2019
Analysts at CNN and The New York Times noted that Harris came out of the gate strong, directing comments to President Donald Trump through the television cameras and “delivering some of the debate’s best lines.”
The freshman senator from California came fifth, however, in total speaking time Thursday, with just over 13 minutes total, according to The Washington Post.
This comes in strong contrast to her 17-minute domination of the microphone during the first set of debates this July, where Harris stole the show by repeatedly confronting former Vice President Joe Biden about his record on race relations.
And with Biden, the longtime front-runner for the nomination, taking steady hits in nationwide polling aggregated by RealClearPolitics, eyes were fixed on those few candidates strong enough to overtake the self-proclaimed “gaffe machine” in the coming months.
Harris is hardly among them, however, slowly sliding back into the rest of the pack from her strong, second place position at the time of that initial attack on Biden.
Where Harris once polled at 15 percent nationally among likely Democratic primary voters, she secures less than half of those votes, according to a RealClear Politics’ average of recent polls.
Polling above her now are Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Bernie Sanders of Vermont — both of whom consistently garner 15 percent support.
Harris was not alone in criticizing ABC News on Thursday night, Fox News reported.
Sanders railed against the network during the debate, alleging its advertising partnership with health care companies amounted to an unholy alliance that would prevent “Medicare for All” supporters on the stage from having a fair shake.
“We need a health care system that guarantees health care to all people as every other major country does, not a system that provides $100 billion a year in profit for the drug companies and the insurance companies,” Sanders said.
“And to tell you how absurd the system is,” he added, “tonight on ABC, the health care industry will be advertising, telling you how bad “Medicare for All’ is, because they want to protect their profits.
“That is absurd.”
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