Visit our website:
http://www.france24.com
Like us on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/FRANCE24.English
Follow us on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/France24_en
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Camilla Harris has changed her media strategy somewhat. She's been seen sharing a can of
00:09beer with a talk show host. She's also been heard on a show of a notorious radio shock
00:13jock.
00:14With just four weeks to go, it's her last chance for voters to get to know her better.
00:23Cracking open a can of lager on Stephen Colbert's talk show, Vice President Harris continued
00:28her week-long high-profile media blitz. Over on Howard Stern's radio show, whose listenership
00:34skews white and male, she took a mix of more hardline questions on policy, but also showed
00:39her personality.
00:40Listen, I've been the first woman in almost every position I've had. So I believe that
00:47men and women support women in leadership. And that's been my life experience and that's
00:53why I'm running for president.
00:55In a bid to reach every demographic, her string of appearances has included non-traditional
00:59outlets, like the Call Her Daddy podcast, a Gen Z and millennial fan favourite with
01:04Spotify's biggest female listenership.
01:07Unfortunately, Camilla Harris doesn't have anything keeping her humble. How does that
01:12make you feel?
01:13I don't think she understands that there are a whole lot of women out here who, one, are
01:21not aspiring to be humble.
01:23However, critics have argued that Harris is still introducing herself this close to the
01:27election and accuse her of being unable to align herself from Joe Biden's administration.
01:33Would you have done something differently than President Biden during the past four
01:37years?
01:39There is not a thing that comes to mind in terms of, and I've been a part of most of
01:45the decisions that have had impact.
01:48Harris eventually clarified that unlike Biden, she plans to put a Republican in her cabinet.
01:54With seven battleground states up for grabs and polls continuing to show a tight race,
01:58the interview burst is intended to hit a large portion of the media spectrum and dispel criticism
02:04about her infrequent engagement with the mainstream media.
02:08So what do we make of this? Let's bring in the problem solver, Dr Rene Karr, media psychologist,
02:12political advisor. Dr Rene, thank you for joining us here on France 24. We appreciate
02:16your time. The floor is yours. What do you make of this move by Kamala Harris?
02:21Thank you for having me. Well, it's definitely strategic in that she's trying to, as soon
02:26as possible, with this huge crunch of time, to get more people to know her and also to
02:31attract and connect with individuals who previously had no desire to know her, which would include
02:37younger individuals, which also would include younger white males and would also include
02:42very strong Trump supporters who are now questioning either his mental stability or
02:49his fitness of duty to run for office and also be president again.
02:54What does it reveal about Kamala Harris, though, deciding to do what she's doing right now
02:57the way she did? The drinking of the beer, the appearance of Howard Stern, for instance.
03:01Well, I think that the drinking of the beer, I think the Howard Stern, you know, she curses
03:06a lot, she drinks beer, she shoots guns. So that's really who she is. But she's had to
03:12be more of a political persona as the vice president. So being able to be herself is
03:18actually working for her and being able to embrace that, show that on these different
03:23platforms of different demographics so that she can connect with people with who she authentically
03:28is. So it is working for her, being able to connect with more people.
03:32So she's making this change to kind of open more doors. Is that basically it?
03:36Yes. Yes.
03:38Do you think those doors will open for her? Because people get quite entrenched with
03:42political voting, don't they? They see things one way, they seldom change.
03:47Yeah. So that would be a factor of cognitive dissonance. So if there are individuals who
03:52completely hated her and completely hated the Biden administration, then it will make her
03:57maybe seem more likable, but won't significantly change their voting for her or for, you know,
04:05anyone against Trump. However, if they were on the fence, then it will make some headway
04:09because people will see a more positive light of her, get a glimpse of knowing her more intimately,
04:14and that may change people who are more on the fence. Not anyone who's been a Trump,
04:19you know, a very strong Trump supporter. That won't make much difference.
04:22Indeed. The Trump fans, the Trump supporters, no matter what he said, cling to Donald Trump,
04:29don't they? Because he said enough things that might have turned anybody else away from a
04:34candidate, but it doesn't appear to work with him. It's a different set of rules, isn't it?
04:39Yeah, it's also a different mindset. So if you are so committed to being with someone,
04:45then again, through cognitive dissonance, meaning I'm committed to believing this person,
04:50even if the facts don't line up. And so with Trump, he repeatedly has facts that do not line
04:56up, repeatedly gives misinformation. But if you believe one lie, then you have to be willing to
05:01accept the other lie and the other lie. So then you can then justify believing the first lie.
05:07So they'll be more likely to stick to their original belief of I'm going to believe Trump,
05:12whatever, then they are more likely to then go against that belief,
05:16because that would cause more psychological discomfort to disagree suddenly.
05:20What you're describing, Dr. Renee, almost sounds like a cult.
05:23Yeah.
05:27I don't mean to be controversial, but it almost sounds like a cult, doesn't it?
05:30Yeah, but that is how cults began. You manipulate the mindset of an individual and then belong to
05:37a group of individuals who have groupthink. And then groupthink phenomenon then encourages them
05:42to not only continue thinking the same way, but also behaving the same way, which is cult-like
05:48behavior.
05:49Now, how brave was Kamala Harris to do what she did? Because sometimes these kind of,
05:55I'll call it a stunt, sometimes these kind of stunts backfire, don't they?
05:59Yeah. I mean, as far as drinking the beer?
06:02Yeah, yeah.
06:05I don't really think it was brave. I think that just by being the Kamala is Brad and the coconut
06:12memes, I think that the drinking beer, sending she shoots guns, I think that all of that is
06:17trying to make her more relatable to wider range of audiences. It is brave. But if you also look at
06:24how she was as the vice president, she was more sterile and more being a vice president. So she
06:31was submitting to the authority of President Biden and she was following what he believed
06:37and she was presenting the message as a vice president. But now that she's going to be herself,
06:42then I think that she's able to be herself, not following anyone else's leadership.
06:47So I think it's brave that she's willing to be authentic more so than being political by
06:53maintaining a persona as vice president that wasn't how she truly was for the majority of her
06:59career.
07:00Dr. Renee Carr, thank you very much for joining us. I do hope you will join us again for more
07:04discussions about how this campaign is going. A pleasure having you here on France 24.
07:08Thank you very much indeed. We will continue, of course,
07:11to chart all developments of the campaign between now and voting day, November the 5th.