Kamala Harris’s CNN town hall: our experts are united in their verdict

The Vice President took questions from undecided voters in Pennsylvania – and managed to answer very few of them

Something is missing. Regrettably for Kamala Harris, that is the feeling millions of Americans will be struggling to shake off after CNN’s town hall event in Pennsylvania. 
Harris needed to dazzle. Instead she was deflated. America needed to see her fire and her depth. All she could muster was a cool reasonableness. It wasn’t enough to reassure her frustrated supporters, or silence her critics. 
True, there were glimmers of Harris at her most impressive. Her raw conviction on abortion rights, expressed in simple and stark terms, was probably her strongest moment of the programme.
But on the issues that are going to decide this election – from the cost of living to the question of border control – Harris seemed lacking in both passion and focus. When an audience member grilled her about rising grocery bills, she stammered about price gouging then appeared to run out of things to say before jarringly changing the subject. 
Her slogans melted into a stream of consciousness that was hard to follow. She talked about predatory land developers, Medicaid, the woes of the “sandwich generation” and small businesses’ need for tax cuts all in the same breath. At a time when undecided voters are looking for clarity and specificity, Harris seemed to offer only distracting detail and confusion. Though she repeatedly affirmed that she will bring new ideas and a fresh approach to the role of the presidency, she failed to explain how in lucid and simple terms. 
What came through clearer than Harris’s policies were the fundamental problems with her campaign. Her pragmatism at times verged on unprincipled. What rattles so many Americans about uncontrolled immigration is not just the disorder and violence at the border, but the violation of the American ideals of fairness. And yet Harris’s admission that “people have to earn” American citizenship was an afterthought. “Let’s just fix it!” She exclaimed impatiently, as if it didn’t particularly matter why. 
Even more revealing was her response to one man’s awkward question about her greatest weakness. Harris confessed that she likes to kick the tires, and that she doesn’t always have the answers. Given that she is supposed to be casting herself as the solid, practical, serious alternative to Trumpism, such an admission is devastating.
Of course, she held herself as usual with commendable poise. But there is a fine line between model and mannequin. Harris had a stellar start to this contest. As Trump marches towards to the White House, she is fading elegantly into the background. 
If Kamala Harris had her way, she would have been debating Donald Trump tonight.
Instead, the vice-president had CNN’s primetime slot to herself for a town hall. It may have been a friendly network for the Democrat – but it was the 32 undecided voters from the must-win state of Pennsylvania in the audience that she had to win over.
Without Trump as a foil, Ms Harris had nowhere to hide, and her faltering performance was unlikely to have swayed those yet to make up their minds.
Ms Harris looked poised and has undoubtedly grown in confidence during her brief three months fronting a presidential campaign. She skilfully navigated a question about the high civilian death toll in Gaza which was immediately followed by one on anti-Semitism.
But she is still prone to word salads (“I say that to say” being the most egregious), becoming unstuck during predictable questions and frequently repeating herself. She mentioned serving as attorney general of California around a half dozen times.
The 60-year-old went in with an obvious mission: persuade independents and anti-Trump Republicans she was a safe bet. To that end, she highlighted endorsements from prominent GOP figures and underscored her commitment to bipartisanship. She even backed building Trump’s border wall.
She also vowed that her administration “will not be a continuation” of Mr Biden’s. “I bring to this role my own ideas and my own experience, I represent a new generation of leadership on a number of issues,” she said, in some of her strongest language distancing herself from the man to whom she owes her current position.
Yet she lacked message discipline during moments of nervousness, falling back on boring anecdotes about her past as a prosecutor, rather than effectively prosecuting the case against Trump.
Asked about her weaknesses, Ms Harris conceded she “may not be quick to have the answer” when asked a question. But with 13 days until election day and record numbers voting early, this was her final chance to do just that.
Instead, she replicated her approach to debating Trump – flipping questions about her policies into a referendum on him. In Trump’s absence, it proved an ineffective strategy and denied voters what they really wanted: a reason to vote for her rather than against Trump.