Source: Alex Wong / Getty
CNN commentator Van Jones brought up a good (albeit obvious AF) point regarding a glaring double standard applied to Kamala Harris and Donald Trump in the race for the presidency. During CNN’s Town Hall with Harris, which aired Wednesday (Oct. 23) , Harris answered some tough questions from audience members, and she held her own. However, pundits, especially right-wing pundits, predictably picked her apart and scrutinized her performance in ways they don’t when Trump — arguably the most boorish, childish, bigoted, and idiotic blowhard in the history of modern politics — is in the spotlight.
From thegrio:
On the heels of major news that Donald Trump was quoted admiring Hitler’s generals and was called “fascist” by his longest-serving chief of staff, Harris found herself being criticized by some TV analysts after the town hall for sometimes having long, nuanced answers to policy questions. Trump declined to attend the debate altogether despite multiple debates being standard for a presidential campaign.
“Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are not taking the same exam. And I think it bothers people,” Jones said during a political panel. “He gets to lawless, she has to be flawless. That’s what’s unfair.
“That’s what’s unfair tonight. They’re not taking the same exam. Look she has policies. She may not articulate them perfectly every time. She may not put the stories in the right places. But she’s fighting for actual ideas that will help real people. And he’s talking about people’s penises … It’s pissing me off.”
Now, listen: Typically, Van Jones is a flip-flopping Aaron Burr-ass political analyst who straddles the line between progressive and conservative and can’t seem to decide whether he wants to denounce Trump or hump his leg a little — but this time, he’s pretty spot on.
Harris’ critics have balked about her not revealing any specific policy ideas, despite the fact that she has been far more candid regarding details of her plans than the guy who said on the debate stage that he merely has “concepts of a plan.”
We should have no interest in any political analyst who is complaining that Harris can have “long, nuanced answers to policy questions” while Trump is out here screaming like a tinfoil hat-wearing maniac about pet-eating Haitians, cancer-causing-windmills, medical Lysol-injections, military boat-sinking batteries that may cause shark attacks, and cops who need “one real rough, nasty day” where they can freely commit acts of police brutality.
I mean, look at what Trump said about late pro-golfer Arnold Palmer just this week. Imagine the media uproar if Kamala Harris stood on a nationally televised stage in front of a massive audience and said this:
“Arnold Palmer was all man and I say that in all due respect to women, and I love women, but this is a guy that was all man…When he took showers with the other pros they came out of there, they said, ‘Oh my God. That’s unbelievable.’”
So, yeah — Harris and Trump might be running in the same race, but they’re not being graded on the same curve. Not by a long shot.
