OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Another day, another “word salad” from Vice President Kamala Harris.
Speaking to reporters on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, Harris called for another presidential debate. However, she misspoke and oddly stated that she wanted “the former vice president to” accept the debate. Trump is the former president, not the vice president.
Harris: “Well, you’ve probably heard I would like another debate. So, I’m hoping the former vice president will agree to that.”
“Which Vice President is she talking about here?” a social media user asked.
The Trump campaign’s X account “Trump War Room” mocked her gaffe, saying: “Kamala says she’d ‘like another debate’ with the ‘former vice president.’ Does she think she’s running against Mike Pence? Dick Cheney? Dan Quayle? Has she covered up Biden’s cognitive decline for so long that it has now rubbed off on her?”
WATCH:
While Vice President Kamala Harris has received fawning media coverage and has never really been pressed about her policy positions—including several flip-flops—since being anointed the Democratic Party nominee by President Joe Biden over the summer, she still hasn’t managed to build much of a lead over her GOP rival, former President Donald Trump.
And, in fact, according to one of the country’s leading pollsters, despite all of her favorable press, she and Trump are essentially tied, according to Nate Silver.
“With all seven states polling so closely, I don’t really have an intuition beyond what’s in our forecast, which is 50-50, almost exactly,” Silver told CNN on Friday.
“Look clearly, Harris has some kind of momentum post-debate. The thing that would worry me a little bit if I were Democrat is that she had the same momentum earlier on in the campaign and then had a very flat to negative period afterwards. So, can she sustain the good vibe, so to speak, that she had before? You know, to me, Trump seems pretty off-kilter recently. It’s a bit more subjective,” Silver continued.
“But we’re not going to wake up on November 5 with a lot of certainty about the outcome. We might not go to bed on November 5 with a lot of certainty, either. You could even have a recount 2020 style or 2000 style, rather, in one or more key swing states,” he added.
Other pollsters share Silver’s uncertainty, though another top election forecaster sees Trump with a clear advantage heading into the home stretch as early voting began this week.
In an interview with Fox News’ Laura Ingraham on Thursday, pollster Matt Towery discussed the latest data and proclaimed that Trump is ahead of where he was in 2016 and 2020 at the same time during those campaigns.
“Explain how these candidates could be tied nationally, but Kamala is up in Pennsylvania? What does that mean?” Ingraham asked to begin the segment.
“Well, you know, let me just say this. The polling gurus and predictors are going to start telling you over the next month and a half that Harris is gaining speed in these various battleground states,” Towery responded. “They’re somehow going to say that she’s gaining speed in the national polls. I’m just going to predict it. They’re going to say that she’s going to win and Trump will lose. It makes no sense.
“People have to understand. Trump is running way ahead of where he has in the last two cycles that he ran in the national average. I mean, she is much closer than either Biden or, before that, Hillary Clinton. And in these various states, now, you know, everybody has their different way of sampling things. I think all of these states are very tight,” he continued.
“But I don’t think there’s any state where anyone has a four or five-point lead right now that’s a battleground state. I just don’t see it, and I don’t believe it,” Towery said.