Stephen A. Smith Says Harris Must CHANGE Strategy

In a Thursday video, ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith warned that Vice President Kamala Harris will not succeed by emulating President Joe Biden’s low-visibility campaign strategy. Biden faced criticism in 2020 for his “basement campaign,” where he limited media appearances and rallies.

On “Front Office Sports” Tuesday, Smith advised Harris to adopt former President Donald Trump’s strategy of “showing up everywhere” if she aims to overcome him in the November election.

“She’s using rallies as interviews. No, no, that’s not the same thing. You got to go up there and fight fire with fire. He’s showing up everywhere despite 34 felony convictions, two impeachments, multiple civil suits against him. He’s going out there and showing his face everywhere,” Smith said. “And then he’s bringing up the war in Ukraine, he’s bringing up the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in Gaza and beyond, he’s bringing up some stuff that’s going on with our borders, stuff that’s going on in this country. And he’s saying, ‘Where is she? He’s doing that on purpose because this is an engagement in misogyny where he’s trying to imply, ‘I’m a man, I’m strong, I’m willing to show up and fight. Where is she at?’  You can’t answer that by not showing up yourself. It’s working now, please don’t get me wrong … It’s not going to continue to work. You’re going to have to show up and show out just like he does. Wherever he goes, you gon’ have to show up and be like, ‘I’m here too, let’s get it on.’ You gon’ have to treat him like he’s hiding: ‘You need to run from me, it ain’t the other way around.’ She has to do that.”

Since launching her campaign on July 21, Kamala Harris has largely stuck to scripted remarks, participating in only one sit-down interview and a single presidential debate, with no official press conferences reported, according to Fox News.

Similarly, President Biden averaged about 11 press conferences per year heading into his fourth year in office, based on data from the University of California at Santa Barbara’s American Presidency Project.

He also skipped a traditional end-of-year press conference in 2023 and chose not to give a prime-time Super Bowl interview in 2024.

“If you don’t do that, then they’re going to piggyback off of Biden,” Smith said. “They’re going to look at what he avoided, they’re gonna say, ‘You’re mirroring that strategy. The Dems forced you to do this.’ That’s not the right way to go, and it’s going to be an excuse for a whole bunch of people to say, ‘We’re living in some trying times, we think he’s tougher, we want to go in that direction.’ That’s his only play.”

Stephen A Smith calls out Harris for ducking from the press. Says it’s not fair to voters. pic.twitter.com/8eUwz3mCvr

— Insurrection Barbie (@DefiyantlyFree) August 13, 2024

On a Thursday podcast, Democratic strategist James Carville suggested that Kamala Harris should address a mix of “planted” and unrehearsed questions during public speaking engagements. He recommended this approach to help her appear more impressive and spontaneous, while ensuring it isn’t obvious that she has prepared for some of the questions.