Spin Cycle: The Question No One Wants To Ask First

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.

The usual Sunday political talk shows went about their usual business — with the exception of NBC, where “Meet the Press” was preempted by continued coverage of the Olympic Games in Paris — but while the hosts of those shows filled their time with questions on a range of topics, there were two glaring questions they didn’t ask: First, where is President Joe Biden? And second, why isn’t Vice President Kamala Harris answering questions?

On ABC, driven largely by “This Week” host George Stephanopoulos, much of the conversation focused on former President Donald Trump’s comments about Vice President Harris identifying as black — when it was politically advantageous — after leaning into her Indian heritage for similar reasons. As Vice Presidential nominee JD Vance explained during a later interview, the point he was making was that Harris was a “chameleon.”

Still, Stephanopoulos grilled Rep. Byron Donalds on the comments, asking several times in contentious tones about Trump’s comments. Donalds repeatedly waved off the onslaught — telling the former Democrat operative that comments like that were distractions and side issues — and tried to bring the conversation back to Harris’ liberal record as U.S. Senator and her repeated failures since she was inaugurated as Biden’s Vice President.

When pressed by @GStephanopoulos on why former Pres. Trump and his allies are questioning Vice Pres. Harris’ racial identity, GOP Rep. Byron Donalds calls it a “phony controversy.” https://t.co/FHwygFDOHg pic.twitter.com/uCgooyYI00

— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) August 4, 2024

Stephanopoulos scolded Donalds for daring to speak about Harris’ racial identity — which he only did after the ABC host prodded him repeatedly: “You just did it — you just did it again. Why do you — why do you insist on questioning her racial identity?”

He demanded that Donalds answer his question, to which Donalds responded: “George, now that you’re done yelling at me, let me answer. He talked about it on the stage yesterday in Atlanta for, what, two minutes? He spent more than 35, 40 minutes going after her record, talking about how radical of a senator that she was. She was the most liberal senator in the United States Senate. That is a fact. He talked about the job that she did as vice president of the United States. A job, I will add, which has been a failure for the American people. I know you guys like to glom on to this, that he talks about in jest or in a serious manner for about a minute or so. What you do not cover is the litany of failures of Kamala Harris. That’s what you’re not covering, George.”

Stephanopoulos also brought the topic to his panel discussion, where former Democratic National Committee Chair Donna Brazile was more willing to take the bait than Donalds had been. “Donald Trump wants to be the arbiter of who is an American and he is not,” she said.

After former Pres. Trump questions Vice Pres. Harris’ racial identity, former DNC chair @DonnaBrazile tells @GStephanopoulos that Americans are “tired” of this “old playbook.”

“Donald Trump wants to be the arbiter of who is an American and he is not.” https://t.co/8iurkoq4bL pic.twitter.com/3UsUAYcjdr

— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) August 4, 2024

On “Face the Nation,” CBS spent some time discussing who Harris might choose to be her running mate, and leaned into coverage of a new poll that showed Harris with a one-point lead over Trump nationally — and tied with him in likely battleground states.

A new CBS News Poll finds Vice President Kamala Harris has reset the 2024 presidential race, now with a slight 1-point edge over Donald Trump nationally. Across the battleground states, the two candidates are tied 50/50. pic.twitter.com/qRZtCcQnNK

— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) August 4, 2024

Former White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, on her MSNBC show, brought the topic back around to Harris’ racial identity — and brought in Al Sharpton to discuss it.

.@TheRevAl on Donald Trump questioning Kamala Harris’s race: “She ran as the first Black DA in San Francisco, Black attorney general, Black U.S. Senator from the state of California, first Black vice president… Obviously, it’s not working for him this time.” pic.twitter.com/62X0zy255A

— Inside with Jen Psaki (@InsideWithPsaki) August 4, 2024

“She ran as the first Black DA in San Francisco, Black attorney general, Black U.S. Senator from the state of California, first Black vice president,” Sharpton said, saying of former President Trump’s attack: “Obviously, it’s not working for him this time.”

What none of them seemed curious about was the fact that Biden has only made a handful of brief public appearances since he dropped out of the 2024 presidential race — and is spending the weekend in Delaware while reports circulate about the United States military increasing its presence in the Middle East.

Also apparently outside their scope of interest was landing the first interview — or even asking the first tough question — of Vice President Harris since she landed at the top of the 2024 Democratic ticket despite never earning a single primary vote on her own.

Vance has made an effort to remind people of the fact that Harris has yet to answer a single difficult question since ascending to the nomination, posting an update via X daily. “It’s been 14 days since Kamala Harris became the presumptive nominee of the Democrat Party and she still hasn’t sat for a single interview with the media. #WheresKamala,” he posted on Sunday.

It’s been 14 days since Kamala Harris became the presumptive nominee of the Democrat Party and she still hasn’t sat for a single interview with the media. #WheresKamala https://t.co/mRpUXSxIzT

— JD Vance (@JDVance) August 4, 2024