Stephanie Ruhle to Interview Kamala Harris Days After Vehemently Defending Her on Bill Maher
MSNBC announced early Wednesday morning that Stephanie Ruhle is interviewing Vice President Kamala Harris in her first one-on-one television sit-down since becoming the Democratic presidential nominee.
The Harris campaign has come under scrutiny for limiting their candidates’ media availabilities with no traditional press conferences and only a handful of challenging interviews. Harris and her running mate, Governor Tim Walz, spoke with CNN’s Dana Bash in the last week of August — in what is, thus far, her only national television interview since taking the top spot on the Democratic ticket. Harris has also done local news interviews and a conversation with Oprah Winfrey. The sitdown with Ruhle is new, but given the network that will exclusively air the conversation, it’s unclear whether any needle will be moved.
This leads us to Ruhle’s journalistic bona fides. I’ve lauded her in the past, as she has far more journalistic chops than many of her MSNBC on-air colleagues who, at times, seem far more committed to attacking former President Donald Trump and even presenting DNC-approved talking points, than speaking truth to power without fear or favor.
Ruhle has been on the progressive network for some time, but her roots are in financial journalism, having previously co-hosted a show on Bloomberg. But to be clear, Ruhle is decidedly pro-Harris and openly anti-Trump — which is her right as a citizen and explains why her career has thrived at MSNBC. This is nothing new in today’s opinion-forward cable news landscape: the vast majority of Fox News on-air talent openly tout Republican or pro-Trump positions. It’s a lucrative approach that ignores the strict definition of journalism.
Ruhle’s cheerleading for Harris suits her employer and precisely the sort of outraged comfort food MSNBC viewers seek. But will she challenge Harris on any issues that could convince the elusive “persuadable” set of likely voters? Or will she treat her subject, who could become the commander in chief and free world leader in the coming weeks, with kid gloves? Given her recent appearance on HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher, we have a sense of how that will go.
A clip of a back-and-forth with New York Times conservative columnist Bret Stephens was widely shared after he and Ruhle got into a spirited discussion about the current election and what Kamala Harris has revealed via press availability.
Ruhle effectively played to the anti-Trump host and audience, getting laughter and applause mocking Stephens for having the temerity to say the American public should “find out a little bit more” about the Vice President and “I don’t think it’s a lot to ask her to sit down for a real interview, as opposed to a puff piece in which she describes, like her her feelings of growing up in Oakland of nice lawns.”
Ruhle openly mocked Stephens’s basic assertion, saying, “When you move to Nirvana, give me your real estate broker’s number, and I’ll be your next-door neighbor. We don’t live there.” Huh? Expecting a challenging interview of a presidential candidate is delusional?
It’s not a stretch of the imagination to envision the Harris campaign watching this unfold — or in a clip later shared on social media — and immediately thinking “she’s the one to do the next interview.” It’s also entirely plausible that MSNBC and the Harris campaign were in discussions about this interview and Ruhle’s performative playing for the crowd could have sealed the deal.
Ruhle has a big task at hand in interviewing Harris today, and she has an enormous reputational risk as well. The vice president has evolved on a number of policy issues—long derided by MSNBC co-hosts—namely fracking, border issues, and the treatment of immigrants.
Will Ruhle hold her to account and speak truth to power, or will she instead opt to serve the opinion comfort food her network loves to dish out? We shall see.
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This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.
