EJ Haust, a digital marketing expert and former journalist who moved from Minnesota to Tennessee four years ago, discussed what she expects from tonight’s taped CNN interview with Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.
Haust, who lived in Minnesota for 12 years before relocating to the Volunteer State, said she doesn’t expect CNN host Dana Bash, who is interviewing Harris and Walz, to ask any “hard-hitting” questions.
“I don’t think anybody expects Dana to ask questions that are hard-hitting,” Haust explained on Thursday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show.
“I think she’s going to loft a couple of really easy ones, things along the lines of, ‘Your opponent is basically eating children and is a terrible, awful human. How do you plan to bring joy to the country with your great smile and laugh?’ Like, those are the questions,” Haust added.
Haust also pointed out that the interview, which is set to air at 9 p.m. ET, may only see Harris answering three or four questions to fit within the show’s hour time slot.
“It’ll be somewhere between 22 and 44 minutes…In those 44 minutes, it’s not like we’re going to hear Kamala Harris and Tim Walz speak for those 44 minutes. What we’re going to hear is a long convoluted softball question from Dana that takes up a good portion of the time and then they’ll have a few minutes to respond. I think we’re going to hear equal time between the candidates and the interviewer,” Haust explained.
Regarding Walz’s participation in the interview as Harris’ “emotional support coach,” Haust said she believes the governor will “not be able to help himself” and interrupt Harris while she answers questions.
“My assessment is that he will not be able to help himself in some instances. Now, they’re going to have staff all around him telling him to calm down and don’t get so excited and don’t cut her off, but I don’t think he’ll be able to help himself. I think he will cut her off. I think he will interject,” Haust said.
“She’ll start off on one of her little word salads and then he will just feel the need to jump in,” Haust added.
Haust also said she expects Walz to show his “angry side” during the interview.
“Kamala Harris definitely has the joy factor. She likes to laugh and she makes her jokes, nobody else laughs, but Walz, however, is an angry little man and he’s very excited to be here right now, but he loves this attention. He’s a bloviator, an exaggerator. Everything he talks about is embellished. We call it lies, they say embellished, but if Dana dares push him a little bit and he gets all defensive, I expect him to show a little bit of his angry side,” Haust said.
Haust said she believes Harris is being told to “smile a lot” during the interview because “that’s her best feature.”
“She’s a good face for the campaign. She just lacks the brain,” Haust said.
Watch the full interview:
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
Photo “Tim Walz and Kamala Harris” by Tim Walz.
