I want someone to interview Kamala Harris, but not the normal way.
I don’t want them to demand her reaction to recent events. I certainly don’t want them to grill her with Republican talking points. I’m not even keen on trying to pin her down on her policies (it doesn’t work).
The journalistic imperative at this point is not so much to help distinguish her from Donald Trump. That job is done. And it’s unlikely that one interview will change a lot of minds.
But I do think the American public deserves to know more about how her mind works before electing her president of the United States.
We’ve heard her stock answers over and over again by now, and they’re certainly compelling. But they only go so far.
What’s going on inside her head? How does she resolve conflicts? Is she a purist or a pragmatist? Whose advice does she trust?
That’s what I want to know.
So here are some of the questions I hope someone will have the chance to ask her.
Q. You’ve summarized your core values as freedom, democracy, and opportunity. Do you consider yourself an absolutist when it comes to those values, or a pragmatist?
Q. If you have a Republican Senate, you’re going to have to do some compromising to get any of your agenda passed. What do you take into consideration when deciding whether and how to compromise?
Q. Even if you win, the fact is that nearly half this country will have voted for Donald Trump, a man whose values are about as opposite yours as humanly possible. How do you reconcile yourself to that?
Q. I understand you intend to be president for all the people, but what do you do about all those Trump voters? Do you try to win them over somehow? How? And is that realistic?
Q. You often say “we have so much more in common than what separates us.” What do you say to people who don’t believe that?
Q. What does it mean to you to be a Californian?
Q. What makes you angry?
Q. What makes you hopeful?
Q. How did having an absent father affect your world view?
Q. How do you balance values that are in conflict?
Q. For instance, how do you reconcile the need to address climate change and the need to produce enough energy?
Q. How do you draw the line between people being taxed too little and being taxed too much?
Q. How do you go about establishing the sweet spot between too few tariffs and too many?
Q. How do you balance the demands of donors with your obligation to the general public?
Q. Let’s talk about the Middle East. Are there any bright lines you would draw in terms of suspending military support for Israel, or does anything go?
Q. How upset were you by the killing of Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi intelligence agents?
Q. How do you draw the line between helping Ukraine too much and not helping it enough?
Q. Let’s talk about the Supreme Court. As currently constituted, how big an obstacle do you consider it to achieving your goals?
Q. Do you think you can you find a way to bring the Court back in line with the general public without being accused of stacking it?
Q. How dangerous is it for the president to have immunity from criminal prosecution for illegal acts committed officially? What can be done about that?
Q. How big a problem is income inequality? And how much progress do you hope you will have made in four or eight years?
Q. How concerned are you about misinformation? What do you intend to do about it?
Q. What can you do to change the perception that the economy is not doing well?
Q. What do you do with an outlet like Fox News, which is a spreaders of disinformation and a propaganda network for your opponents? Would you discourage your staff from treating them like a normal news organization?
Q. Why do you think Donald Trump tells people the country is on the brink of collapse, when it obviously is not?
Q. What are three things that you promise to achieve, regardless of whether there’s a Democratic Congress or not? In other words, three things for which you can be held accountable four years from now?
Q. How do you plan to set up your office? Will you have a strong chief of staff? What do you do when everyone wants some of your time but there’s only so much of you to go around?
Q. What do you delegate, and what don’t you delegate?
Q. Let’s talk about transparency, and leaks. Every president, including Joe Biden, has been deeply reticent about their decision-making process. Would you be willing to let your staff talk more freely to the media about what’s going on in the White House?
Q. How would you treat unauthorized leaks?
Q. Will you commit to a schedule of regular press conferences?
Q. Whose advice do you value the most?
Q. Who have been some of the best cabinet picks in history, prior to this administration, and why?
Q. What do you anticipate your average day will be like?
Q. How serious a problem is the presidential bubble, and what do you intend to do to make sure that you understand the concerns of average Americans?
These are terrific, and I’d sure love to hear an interview like this.
Suggest adding a few questions on “futuristic” developments that are taking shape in the present, including AI, deepfakes, cybersecurity threats, cryptocurrencies, quantum computing. What does she think about the federal government’s role with respect to new technologies?
If I were Harris, I would tell you; Trump first.
Take these questions to Donald Trump, and which ever ones Trump answers substantively, I will answer as well.
Harris is already far too press-friendly.
With the press rigorously critiquing Harris, and sane-washing Trump to pretend they are competitive, engaging the press gives them more material.
Denying the press material could force them to write about Trump. That is what I would do.
Alternatively; Harris could follow the Reagan administrations example and write their stories for them, so they publish that instead.
What’s the last book you read?
All excellent, intelligent questions that would produce thoughtful substantive answers, and I would love to see them asked. Great outside-the-box thinking. Please try to push these on your media friends. Questions such as these could effect a drastically different political landscape.
I’m so glad I can help support your work here. Sometimes it has seemed like you struggled to write columns for various outlets, but you have persevered for many years and lately I see, and I hope you do as well, your work changing the way the press allows itself to cover the news. Good work.
“You’ve summarized your core values as freedom, democracy, and opportunity. Do you consider yourself an absolutist when it comes to those values, or a pragmatist?”
I’d be more curious to know what she prioritizes when they conflict. Freedom of speech, for example, is in the process of dismantling democracy. How does she want to deal with that?