How CNN host Dana Bash handled past interviews with Kamala Harris

SAVANNAH, Georgia - Vice-President Kamala Harris’ interview on Aug 29 with Ms Dana Bash of CNN is the first major unscripted moment of her young presidential campaign. But it isn’t her first encounter with Ms Bash.

The CNN political anchor has interviewed Ms Harris on three occasions in the past few years. In those past meetings, Ms Bash was a firm-but-fair interlocutor: sometimes granting Ms Harris time to meander through lengthy answers, and sometimes pressing her, repeatedly, when the vice-president equivocated on tough issues.

It was Ms Bash, in 2022, who elicited Ms Harris’ memorably odd description of herself as “the daughter of a woman, and a granddaughter of a woman”. (The anchor was asking about the vice-president’s reaction to the Supreme Court opinion that overturned Roe v Wade.)

In the same interview, Ms Bash pushed Ms Harris on the Biden administration’s plans to secure abortion rights in the wake of the ruling. The vice-president declined to give a full-throated endorsement of the strategies floated by Ms Bash, like challenging state laws or an executive action.

“But what do you say to Democratic voters who argue, ‘Wait a minute, we worked really hard to elect a Democratic president and vice-president, a Democratic-led House, a Democratic-led Senate. Do it now,’” Ms Bash asked.

“But do what now?” Ms Harris replied.

A 2021 interview at the White House, conducted at a distance because of pandemic protocols, appeared less tense. Ms Bash asked Ms Harris about being the first Black and Indian person to serve as vice-president – “How is that bringing itself to bear in the White House?” – and murmured in concurrence when Ms Harris said that Congress should act to restrict certain gun rights.

Ms Bash did ask a puckish question about President Joe Biden’s decision to assign Ms Harris to the knotty issue of the southern border, a subject that has loomed over her 2024 candidacy. “Did you say, ‘Oh gee, thanks, Mr President?’” Ms Bash asked. (Ms Harris answered that she was content with the assignment.)

During the 2020 race, Ms Bash sat with Ms Harris, then Mr Biden’s running mate, at Howard University. The anchor pressed Ms Harris on whether she would require public schoolchildren to be vaccinated (a theoretical question, as no vaccine had yet been approved) and about her shifting views on policing. Ms Bash pointed out that Ms Harris had, a decade earlier, supported deploying more police officers in cities, and had since backed away from that view. Ms Harris responded that in the case of any crime, she wanted “a police officer who responds to that case” and “accountability and consequence for the offender”.

Ms Bash, who keeps a lower public profile than some of her CNN colleagues, often avoids being drawn into partisan crossfire. But the high-profile nature of the interview on Aug 29 prompted former President Donald Trump, in a social media post, to weigh in. He called on Ms Bash to conduct “a fair but tough interview” of Ms Harris, adding, “This is a chance for Dana Bash to reach REAL stardom.”

“Good luck, Dana,” Trump added. “Do the right thing!!!” NYTIMES