MSNBC host Stephanie Ruhle went to bat for Vice President Kamala Harris, insisting she doesn't have to address policy questions from the press because "she's not running for perfect, she's running against Trump."
On Friday's installment of "Real Time with Bill Maher," Ruhle rushed to defend Harris after host Bill Maher torched the VP's recent comments laying out her plans for a post-war Middle East, suggesting it was hollow.
"She is in a tricky position because Joe Biden is currently the commander in chief and she's the VP," Ruhle told Maher. "So it's very difficult for anybody in her position to kind of thread this needle and say, 'Here's what we should do, here's our plan' when he's the current commander in chief."
"She's in this weird space of like an improv show, of like a ‘yes, and,’ 'Yes to what he's doing and I think we should do this,' So it's especially tricky."
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Fellow panelist, New York Times columnist Bret Stephens, turned to Ruhle with an "honest question," asking whether Harris was being "vague" for political reasons or "does she simply have no idea?" Ruhle insisted that wasn't an "honest question" since she'd never say Harris has "no idea."
"I'm an undecided voter. I'm never gonna vote for Trump, but I'm not sure I want to vote for Kamala," Stephens told Ruhle. "And my fear is that she doesn't really have a very good command of what she wants to do as president. It would be great for her to sit down with you [Bill Maher], or George Stephanopoulos, or you Stephanie."
"It's not too much to ask Kamala, ‘Say, are you for a Palestinian state if Hamas is gonna run that state? Yes or no?’" he later added.
"And let's say you don't like her answer. Are you going to vote for Donald Trump?" Ruhle shot back. "Kamala Harris is not running for perfect. She's running against Trump. We have two choices. And so there are some things you might not know her answer to. And in 2024, unlike 2016 for a lot of the American people, we know exactly what Trump will do, who he is and the kind of threat he is to democracy."
"Stephanie, the problem that a lot of people have with Kamala is we don't know her answer to anything, okay?" Stephens doubled down.
"But you know his answer to everything!" Ruhle interjected.
"And that's why I would never vote for him and people shouldn't vote for him," Stephens continued. "But people also are expected to have some idea of what program is of the person you're supposed to vote for! You're not supposed to say ‘Well, you have to vote for y because x is that and the other.' Let’s find out a little bit more. And I don't think it's a lot to ask for her to sit down for a real interview as opposed to a puff piece in which she describes her feelings of growing up in Oakland with nice lawns."
"I would just say to that- when you move to Nirvana, give me your real estate broker's number and I'll be your next door neighbor. We don't live there!" Ruhle exclaimed.
After she and Maher further mocked Stephens for remaining undecided, the columnist told them he is among the "millions of Americans who Kamala has to persuade if she wants to win."
"Did you ever play the game Would You Rather? Because that is what voting for the president is, okay?" Ruhle later told Stephens.
Earlier in the conversation, Ruhle agreed with Maher that Trump was a "threat to democracy" and defended the ABC News moderators' uneven fact-checking of Trump versus Harris at the presidential debate.
"When Donald Trump tells lie after lie, you don't say ‘Well, nobody seems to care. It’s our job in the media- when people complain ‘Donald Trump got fact-checked way more than Kamala Harris did,’ you're damn right he did! You know why? He told more lies!" Ruhle said.
