Even the king Obama Bro has no idea why news outlets are using words such as “moderate” and “centrist” to describe presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s running mate, the solidly ultra-liberal Sen. Kamala Harris of California.
“It was hilarious to me that [Harris is] being called, in all this coverage, a ‘moderate,’” said former Obama speechwriter and current podcast host Jon Favreau, “like Joe Biden has found a fellow moderate or centrist.”
Favreau added amid a broader conversation with former Obama staffers Daniel Pfeiffer and Alyssa Mastromonaco, “[Harris] supports something extremely close to ‘Medicare for all,’ which Bernie Sanders acknowledged in his statement supporting her. She’s for the Green New Deal. She has one of the most liberal records in the U.S. Senate.”
Biden announced this week that Harris is joining his 2020 presidential campaign as his running mate. Shortly thereafter, news outlets started churning out reports inexplicably characterizing the liberal senator as some sort of “moderate.”
“In adding Harris to the ticket,” the Associated Press claimed, Biden “can point to her relatively centrist record on issues such as health care and her background in law enforcement in the nation’s largest state.”
The Los Angeles Times declared in a headline: “Picking Harris, Biden puts centrist stamp on Democrats’ future.”
“Kamala Harris is a natural centrist who combines the authority of a prosecutor with the enthusiasm of a skilful retail politician,” reported the Economist.
The New York Times claimed elsewhere, “A pragmatic moderate who spent most of her career as a prosecutor, Ms. Harris was seen throughout the vice-presidential search as among the safest choices available to Mr. Biden.”
Amusingly enough, the paper of record also described Harris as having “flexible policy priorities.” That is one way to describe the senator who held at least four separate positions on “Medicare for all” during the 2020 Democratic primary.
“Breaking News: Sen. Kamala Harris of California is Joe Biden’s pick for vice president. A pragmatic moderate, she is the first Black woman on a major party ticket,” the New York Times also announced on social media.
If you are somewhat confused as to why anyone would use the word “moderate” to describe a senator who supports late-term abortion, repealing tax cuts, and religious litmus tests for Catholic judicial nominees, you are not alone.
“If you want to call it Kamala Harris’s record in the Senate and her policies that she’s supporting now centrist or moderate, great,” said Favreau. “If that is where the Overton window has moved, then congratulations to all the progressive activists because you have f—ing moved the shit out of that window.”
He added, “That supporting the Green New Deal and basically ‘Medicare for all’ is now moderate and centrist: fantastic. I’ll take it.”
So, for some of the largest and most powerful newsrooms in the United States, words apparently no longer have any meaning if we are now describing a solidly liberal senator (by even Obama alums’ estimation!) as a “moderate” and a “centrist.”
The final months before Election Day are going to feel like an eternity.
