Former Bush Spokesperson Ari Fleischer Dismisses Harris VP Pick as ‘Just Not That Historically Exciting to African-Americans’
Former Bush spokesperson Ari Fleischer weighed in on Joe Biden’s vice presidential pick Kamala Harris, dismissing her ability to attract minority and Black voters because, in his estimation, “she’s just not that historically exciting to African-Americans.”
Appearing on a panel on Fox News’ The Ingraham Angle, Fleischer coolly brushed off the significance of Harris being the first Black and first Asian-American woman to appear on the major party’s presidential ticket. Instead, he noted that she failed to win over large numbers of Black voters during the presidential primary and, based on that, judged her addition to the Democratic ticket a dud.
When host Laura Ingraham asked him to react to praise for the Harris pick from some Wall Street financial executives, Fleischer noted that New York City is an overwhelmingly Democratic city. But then he badly predicted that the selection of Harris will actually backfire on the Biden campaign.
“I think two political things are going to happen now that Harris is named,” the former Never Trump now pro-Trump pundit said. “One, this race is going to tighten up even more. The reason is because Biden naming her reminds people that Biden exists. He is so much better off hiding in his bunker and not making any news that he is making news.”
“Secondly, I just question whether or not this is going to boost African-American turnout at all. I don’t think it will,” Fleischer claimed. “She’s just not that historically exciting to African-Americans, she certainly wasn’t during the primary. And that was the one of the biggest reasons Biden picked her in order to win. I don’t see it.”
In fact, a July poll from the African-American Research Collective found that strong majorities of Black voters would be more likely to encourage friends and family to vote for Biden if he picked a Black or African-American woman.
VP @JoeBiden picking Sen. @KamalaHarris as running mate will energize Black voters to convince their friends and family to vote. Especially impacts younger Black voters (whose Biden support otherwise is weakest). From our July poll for @au_ccps of 1,215 African Americans. pic.twitter.com/LX86PUZ5HC
— African American Research (@AfAmResearch) August 11, 2020
A similar poll from BlackPAC in April found 55 percent of African-American voters would be more excited to turn out for Biden if he choose a Black woman like Harris to be his running mate.
Watch the video above, via Fox News.
