Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic who moderates the PBS program Washington Week, bluntly called out a double standard Vice President Kamala Harris is held to that her opponent, former President Donald Trump, is not.
Goldberg pointed out that journalists have spent significant time parsing Harris's recent CNN interview while not doing the same to Trump's recent comments about "bacon" and "wind."
In the wake of Thursday's joint interview with VP Kamala Harris and Governor Tim Walz, many in the media spent time analyzing everything the Democratic ticket said to CNN's Dana Bash.
Yet Trump has received far less scrutiny for his recent word salad, including a remark he made at a recent campaign event in Bedminster, New Jersey, associating a reliance on wind power with people eating less bacon:
“You take a look at bacon and some of these products. Some people don't eat bacon anymore. And we are going to get the energy prices down. When we get energy down — you know, this was caused by their horrible energy — wind, they want wind all over the place. But when it doesn't blow, we have a little problem.”
Goldberg wasn't having it:
"I'll call it plainly a double standard that we have in this campaign. We're sitting here parsing, as we should, what the Democratic nominee for president says in an interview, how she answers questions about a whole range of subjects."
[after playing a clip of Trump's remarks]: "Here's the thing: I'll make this observation. I'll own it. If Kamala Harris went from bacon to wind in her interview with Dana Bash, the next morning she would not be the nominee of the Democratic Party."
"That would have been very, very strange. People would have been like, 'What's going on?' Do we just have an absurdly low standard now for the things Donald Trump says and does?"
You can hear what he said in the video below.
@jack.hutton Good Question. Do we just give Donald Trump a pass? Washington Week, August 30, 2024. #doublestandard #donaldtrump #kamalaharris #danabash #cnn #cnnharrisinterview #washingtonweek The press needs to apply the same standards to Donald Trump that they applied to Biden and now to Harris. What is this?
People joined Goldberg in calling out this blatant double standard.
Despite sexist attacks and double standards, Harris is leading Trump ahead of the presidential debate scheduled on September 10.
In a new USA TODAY/Suffolk Poll, Harris leads Trump 48%-43%. With at least one televised debate ahead, about 10% of voters remain undecided or open to changing their minds but Harris has also gained ground on key issues.
While Trump still leads on the economy, voters' top concern, his 6-point advantage (51%-45%) over Harris is less than half the 14-point lead he had over President Joe Biden in June. On immigration, Trump is favored by 3 points (50%-47%), a drop from his 13-point lead over Biden.
On national security and dealing with China, Trump's lead over Harris is 4 points, down from 10 points over Biden. Harris holds double-digit leads on health care (14 points) and race relations (19 points), both wider than the 10-point advantages Biden had.
