How News Outlets Are Covering Kamala Harris

Since President Biden’s poor debate performance last month, many news outlets have pondered who could supplant him on the Democratic ticket if he were to step aside. Media organizations across the political spectrum have pointed to Vice President Kamala Harris as a potential replacement — although a risky one. How they have made that argument, though, has varied. Many liberal news outlets have been hesitant to anoint a potential successor. But as they discuss the possible outcomes, some have started playing up Ms. Harris’s perceived strengths compared with Mr. Biden’s. Others have voiced skepticism about her ability to defeat former President Donald J. Trump in November, fearing that some people might be reluctant to vote for a woman of color. Conservative publications have stepped up their criticisms of Ms. Harris, admonishing her record as vice president as well as making racist attacks, claiming she would be a disaster for the country if elected. Here’s how a selection of outlets have covered Ms. Harris. FROM THE LEFT Slate Since Mr. Biden’s poor debate performance on June 27, many Democrats have raised the possibility that Ms. Harris could be better suited to defeating Mr. Trump. Yet a longstanding concern remains among some Democrats: that many voters would not consider casting a ballot for Ms. Harris because she is a woman who is Black and Asian American. That hasn’t stopped some liberal commentators from arguing for her to be at the top of the ticket. Writing this week for Slate, a liberal online magazine, Jill Filipovic said replacing Mr. Biden would “be much easier if the vice president were a white guy.” But she added that it was “hard to argue that Harris is the weaker candidate” compared with Mr. Biden. And she said that Hillary Clinton’s loss to Mr. Trump in 2016 should not be a reason to hold back support for Ms. Harris. “If we fear the candidacy-killing potential of racism and sexism too much,” Ms. Filipovic wrote, “we create a self-fulfilling prophecy, and we hand forever rule to white men.” FROM THE LEFT Mother Jones Jamilah King, an editorial director at Mother Jones, a liberal news and opinion site, wrote that Ms. Harris’s background as a prosecutor could help Democrats make a strong case against Mr. Trump leading up to November’s election, even if she remained the vice-presidential nominee. “The smart bet would be to blanket the country with Harris, letting her hammer away at Trump’s long history of lies and predation,” Ms. King wrote in the essay, which carried the headline “Either Way, Kamala Harris Can Help Beat Trump.” FROM THE RIGHT The New York Post Since Ms. Harris was announced as Mr. Biden’s vice-presidential pick, the right-wing media has painted Ms. Harris as a far-left politician and has falsely claimed she is ineligible for the position as the child of immigrants. It has also argued that if she were chosen as the Democratic candidate, it would be simply because of her race. Last weekend, The New York Post continued that line of attack in a column with the headline “America may soon be subjected to the country’s first DEI president: Kamala Harris.” The writer, Charles Gasparino, said that Ms. Harris was well positioned to become the nominee if Mr. Biden were to step down. But if he stayed on the ticket and won, Mr. Gasparino argued, she’d still get the job because Mr. Biden would be unlikely to finish out a second term. In such a case, Mr. Gasparino wrote, “Harris becomes the nation’s first DEI president by default. For the American people it would be such an unfair and odd coronation.” Mr. Gasparino suggested Ms. Harris was chosen as Mr. Biden’s running mate only because of the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests. And he criticized her as vice president, writing that she flubbed “every assignment given to her,” including her job to help solve the crisis of migrant crossings along the U.S.-Mexican border. FROM THE RIGHT Newsmax Conservative commentators on Newsmax, a right-wing outlet, have long criticized Ms. Harris. In 2021, the former host Grant Stinchfield ran a segment on his show mocking Ms. Harris’s laugh, and last year the network covered Ms. Harris’s worst “gaffes” of 2023. On July 6, the host Lidia Curanaj said on “The Count” that Ms. Harris had been “complicit in this cover-up, too,” referring to the White House’s efforts to stamp out questions surrounding Mr. Biden’s age. Newsmax continued its unflattering coverage of Ms. Harris during a segment of “Rob Schmitt Tonight” on Tuesday. During a segment of his show, Rob Schmitt, an anchor, questioned whether Ms. Harris would fare better than Mr. Biden in the swing states of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. In response to Mr. Schmitt’s question, Sebastian Gorka, a former White House aide for Mr. Trump, argued that Democrats would support her because of her race and gender. “She’s a D.E.I. hire. She’s a woman. She’s colored. Therefore she’s got to be good,” Mr. Gorka said. 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