Is it smart politics, or Linus with the security blanket?

So many questions, so little time, especially when some of that precious time will be devoted to someone other than the woman who intends to become our next president by acclamation. It is, on one level, hard to believe that a candidate for leader of the free world who remains a mystery to the American public and is widely accused of being vague and flip-flopping on a range of major issues would avoid a one-on-one interview on national television. But believing the wind is at her back with encouraging poll numbers, Kamala Harris did just that by insisting that her VP nominee, Tim Walz, be included in the deal. And so, that is how it will go down tonight at 9:00 p.m. ET on CNN, when host Dana Bash will deliver the first sit-down with a candidate unvetted by the voters more than a month after her elevation to the top of the presidential ticket, sitting next to her VP nominee who was virtually unknown one month ago. The interview comes days before early voting commences and just over two months until Election Day.

Harris will almost certainly answer the question of why her VP was joining in on the interview by saying the country has not been fully introduced to the Minnesota governor and that this is a chance for Americans to get to know him apart from the fanfare of the partisan Democratic National Convention. But as many pundits have pointed out, the VP nominee could easily submit to his own interview – or, God forbid, multiple sit-downs – where he could face full and direct scrutiny. But by sitting in with Harris, Walz might be able to sidestep questions about his record. The risk is that both he and Harris face relatively withering questioning and appear unprepared, confused, or don’t get their stories straight. After all, they have been together for all of three weeks and have yet to even post a single policy on their campaign website – only donations up to now.

Scott Jennings, conservative voice on the otherwise leftist CNN, thinks the format will be off-putting to viewers: “I do think people are going to bring that up … I think it’s incredibly weak, weak sauce, to show up with your running mate … they [Harris’ campaign staff] don’t have enough confidence in her to let her sit [by] herself … I think the hand wringing and the gyrations over this over the last month show a troubling lack of confidence in her political ability.”

The Harris-Walz Power Play

Despite the criticism, the most obvious benefit for the Harris campaign in having the running mates share the stage is that it sets up a power play. With a single person questioning two subjects who are presumably in lockstep, one candidate can clarify, back up, or rescue the other and create a psychological two-on-one advantage over the interviewer. Voters will undoubtedly scrutinize Harris’ authenticity, vision, and ability to respond to serious questions in real time, a skill she has famously failed to demonstrate on the national stage. But their attention will be diverted when the questioning turns to Walz. Whether that becomes a benefit or liability is, like the agenda of Harris herself, anyone’s guess.

As to why a cable network and Ms. Bash were chosen over more prominent anchors on the four major broadcast networks, “Harris campaign staff have been asking reporters who they think she should talk to. Behind the scenes, TV producers from big name anchors have been calling the campaign to pitch their talent as the person she has to do it with,” according to Politico. CNN won the lottery, and while that platform has long been accused of virulent anti-Trump bias, Bash and her colleague, Jake Tapper, did a respectable job as co-moderators of Donald Trump’s debate with Joe Biden in June that led to the president’s departure from the race.

Still, mocking questions about Vice President Harris abound from across the political world. Does she need an interpreter for her word salads? Does she need someone to explain policies that she is unable to explain? Is this just a naked attempt to reduce the number of direct questions she will be required to answer? And what about Gov. Walz? Will he provide a direct answer on inflating his service record in the National Guard or explain the award from the Nebraska Chamber of Commerce he bragged about that he never actually received? Will he admit he lied about his arrest for drunk driving (a story CNN published)? Will he defend his decision to let Minneapolis burn by waiting days to summon the National Guard after the outbreak of the post-George Floyd riots?

This interview represents the sharpest of double-edged swords, implicit in a long-anticipated event with so much on the line. It has attracted more attention in this bizarre campaign than anything since, well, a historically awful debate performance, an assassination attempt that missed killing one candidate by an inch, the other candidate being jettisoned, and an unvetted, long-unpopular replacement being selected without being elected. One or both of these nominees could sink, swim, or soar. But as a largely unknown quantity, and with the campaign unlikely to ever hold a press conference, Kamala Harris is placing most of her eggs in the basket of this one interview and the one scheduled debate with Trump on September 10. Tens of millions will be watching both with rapt attention.