Spin Cycle: Anchors, Pundits Scramble To Give Kamala Post-Debate Boost

For those who don’t spend their Sunday mornings glued to the television — and their Sunday afternoons attempting to dig through a week’s worth of network and cable news media spin — The Daily Wire has compiled a short summary of what you may have missed.

On Sunday morning, long before the second attempt on former president Donald Trump’s life in Palm Beach, the spin was all about covering for Kamala. Less than a week after what now looks to be the only presidential debate between the former president and current vice president, the media were still bending over backwards to hide Harris’ failure to set herself apart from the administration she’s been a part of for the last 3.5 years.

The New Yorker’s Susan Glasser, fresh off her recent tussle with X’s Community Notes, joined a panel discussion on ABC’s “This Week” to talk about the fallout from Tuesday’s presidential debate between Trump and Harris (with a series of assists from moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis).

The “strategic goal” of the Kamala Harris campaign, according to Glasser, is to make the 2024 election “a referendum on Trump, to turn him into an incumbent.”

The “strategic goal” of the Harris campaign is to make the 2024 race “a referendum on Trump, to turn him into an incumbent,” The New Yorker’s @sbg1 says. https://t.co/mBTNCbBeFD pic.twitter.com/JYXjvJYBNM

— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) September 15, 2024

The obvious problem with that particular strategy is that Trump is not an incumbent, and the American people — and their wallets — are acutely aware of that fact. Harris’ failure to convince people that she is not at least partially responsible for the unpopular policies she helped President Joe Biden to pass — often as the deciding vote in a divided Senate — and then implement, reminds them daily that she, not Trump, is the incumbent in this race.

Asma Khalid, NPR White House correspondent, said as much when she weighed in on the topic. “I would argue whether it’s on the Middle East, whether it’s on Ukraine, the economy, immigration — by and large her policies are akin to what Joe Biden’s are. And that’s to be expected. She’s the sitting vice president,” she said.

“I would argue whether it’s on the Middle East, whether it’s on Ukraine, the economy, immigration — by and large her policies are akin to what Joe Biden’s are. And that’s to be expected. She’s the sitting vice president,” @asmamk says of Vice Pres. Harris. https://t.co/2G6Xowm3WN pic.twitter.com/ZF5If4Kg5N

— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) September 15, 2024

Governor Wes Moore (D-MD) tagged in on CBS News’ “Face the Nation” to defend Harris’ obviously false claim about American troops in combat zones. Harris said during Tuesday’s debate that “not one member of the United States military who is in active duty in a combat zone in any war zone around the world.”

Moore, who has recently been playing defense over his own false claim about a Bronze Star that he never actually received, attempted to spin the vice president’s statement as substantively accurate even if literally untrue. Arguing that Harris had only meant to rebut Trump’s claim that Americans were safer when he was President, Moore conceded, “We do have people who are in harm’s way every single day.”

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, a Democrat and a veteran, responds to Vice President Kamala Harris’ false claim in the presidential debate that there is currently “not one member of the United States military who is in active duty in a combat zone in any war zone around the world.”

“We… pic.twitter.com/bkL6TvjIQH

— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) September 15, 2024

Meanwhile, “Face the Nation” host Margaret Brennan did the heavy lifting for Harris during her interview with Vice Presidential candidate and Senator JD Vance (R-OH), asking him whether he regretted speaking up about claims from his constituents about the impact the Biden-Harris administration’s insistence on resettling large numbers of Haitian migrants in their communities.

Noting that several anti-immigrant threats had been made since, causing lockdowns at local schools and hospitals, Brennan first implied that Vance’s statements had directly resulted in those threats and then asked him whether he regretted saying anything.

Ohio Sen. @JDVance is asked if he regrets his role in spreading false claims about Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, after several places in the city received bomb threats following Donald Trump’s amplification of those claims in the presidential debate.

He said “some… pic.twitter.com/09ZL5lKfih

— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) September 15, 2024

Over on CNN’s “State of the Union,” anchor Dana Bash also appeared to have gotten the memo — and she framed her interview with Vance in much the same fashion.

Vance made it clear that he wasn’t having it, however, and replied, “I want to start with something you said which I think is frankly disgusting, and is more appropriate for a Democratic propagandist than it is for an American journalist. There is nothing that I have said that has led to threats against these hospitals.”

JD Vance tells Dana Bash: “I want to start with something you said which I think is frankly disgusting, and is more appropriate for a Democratic propagandist than it is for an American journalist. There is nothing that I have said that has led to threats against these hospitals.” pic.twitter.com/FYNWzyFOcn

— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) September 15, 2024

On NBC’s “Meet the Press,” it was Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg who stepped up to spin the story — and he claimed that Trump was only amplifying the real concerns raised by Ohio residents in the communities overrun by Haitian immigrants because he was trying to “distract” voters from his real plans.

“They go for something that is so outrageous … you can’t ignore it. … Very real pain has been inflicted,” he claimed.

WATCH: @PeteButtigieg says baseless claims about Haitian immigrants are part of the Trump campaign’s strategy of distracting voters from their agenda.

“They go for something that is so outrageous … you can’t ignore it. … Very real pain has been inflicted.” pic.twitter.com/i56OzxysA5

— Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) September 15, 2024