Right-wing media attacks on VP Kamala Harris increase as 2024 approaches

 

The New York Post is part of the Rupert Murdoch media empire, which includes Fox News.

ANALYSIS

Right-wing media continues to target Vice President Kamala Harris, the presumptive Democratic frontrunner for President if President Biden decides not to run for re-election in 2024.

Articles questioning Harris' effectiveness as Vice President, her shaky staff, her intelligence and her capabilities have been running in conservative "news" outlets from the day that Biden picked her as his running mate.

Harris is being held to a higher standard than other Vice Presidents. Can you name a Vice President who has defined himself independent of the President they serve? As the second-in-command, it is their role to support and advise the President and represent him in the multitude of meetings and events required of the two top office holders in the nation. It is not the Vice President's traditional role to break away from the President's policies in order to bring attention to herself.

Despite the popular conservative trope that claims that mainstream media are left-wing mouthpieces, most media --- print and broadcast -- are beholden to stockholders, a group that lean conservative. Most of the balance of news outlets, adhering to journalistic value of remaining neutral, from the far right vantage point, may appear to be liberal when they are actually trying to be middle of the road. 

In some cases, conservative news outlets will simply make up stories to make the Vice President look bad.

In 2021, The New York Post published a fake story that migrant kids were given copies of Vice President Kamala Harris’ children's book “Superheroes Are Everywhere.” The reporter resigned as a protest saying she was “ordered” to write the fake news.

Here's how the conservative media machine works:

• Conservative news outlets such as the New York Post or Fox News does a piece questioning Harris' leadership capabilities.

• The NY Post often leads off with a story and then it is picked up by Fox News and then the Wall Street Journal will chime in with an opinion piece, the latter still clinging to its reputation to put a stamp of credibility on the issue. Not coincidentally, all of the aforementioned media is owned by Rupert Murdoch, who has helped cleave. They story then gets picked up by number of other conservative news outlets like the Washington Times, Epoch Times and Breitbart News then echoed by the Sinclair TV Group or Fox's chain of TV stations.

• Other mainstream media outlets, fall for the bait set up by the ultra-right wing media. In order to not appear as "missing the news," or being accused of being biased, other news outlets are put in the position of playing "catch-up." In order to not appeared biased, they inevitably do their own versions questioning Harris leadership capabilities, thus forth, further strengthening the impression of Harris' weaknesses.

The average US citizen who wants to keep abreast of the news, seeing this onslaught of attack articles or broadcast pieces about Harris then comes to the inevitable conclusion, "Hmm. There must be something wrong with Harris." 

Chess vs. checkers

So when you see articles such as the one put forth by the Murdoch-owned NY Post about Harris, consider the source. In terms of political strategy, Republicans and their conservative dark-money sources think more long-term than the Democrats. They play chess while Democrats play checkers. 

For example, while Democrats were celebrating President Obama's historic terms in the White House, the GOP was concentrating in the states where they captured the majority in state legislatures and governorships.

While Democrats were high-fiving for putting a Black President in office, the Republican controlled legislatures were planning ways to gerrymander Congressional and state legislative districts in such a way to give the GOP the advantage. They were also placing new restrictions and requirements making it harder for Democratic voters to cast their ballots.

So what is the GOP endgame? What are the long-range implications of discrediting  Harris, the highest-ranking and most visible Asian American in US politics ever. 

2024 and 2028

Which brings us to the prospective candidacy of Nikki Haley and her role in the 2024 race for President. She will presumably announce her intentions on Feb. 15. Hear me out:

In order to avoid accusations of racism or sexism, who better to attack Harris? Another Indian American woman.

Most political watchers agree that Haley has no chance of winning the Republican nomination for President. At best, Haley might be better suited for the role of Vice President for whoever the GOP picks to head the ticket. It could be Trump, DeSantis or some other as of yet unnamed wannabee.

Even if the Republicans lose in 2024, Haley would be in a strong position to lead the GOP in 2028. And who would she probably face either as someone running for a second term (assuming Biden doesn't run in 2024); or as a likely Democratic leader after two terms as the loyal Vice President to perhaps one of the most consequential Presidents we've seen in recent years.

A contest between two strong Indian American women would be interesting as hell and would surely split South Asian voters, who have been strongly Democratic in the 2020 and 2022 elections.

There's a lot of if's in this scenario and it could easily be derailed. Assuming the Democrats ton't give in to the GOP media manipulation and nominate someone else, at the very least, the race for 2024 is already setting up as one in which Asian American voters should be engaged in.

The other storyline put out there is that Biden would pick someone else as his running mate in 2024. That scenario is unlikely because that would certainly displease Black, Asians and women voters, some of Biden's strongest constituencies because of her gender and mixed Black and Asian racial background.

Don't expect the attacks against Harris to let up. With the 2024 Presidential campaigns already underway, right-wing media continues to chip away at her future opportunities. As we await Biden's decision to run for re-election, and all indications  point to a second term, Harris' role will be prominent. The GOP strategists believe the shakier Harris is now, makes it easier to bring her down in the future.

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow @DioknoEd on Twitter. The writer has 30 years of experience as a journalist in community and mainstream media.