CNN panelists predicted Saturday on “The Chris Wallace Show” that anti-Israel protests at the Democratic National Convention (DNC) could “damage” Vice President Kamala Harris’s reintroduction to voters.
CNN host Chris Wallace began the segment by recalling how anti-Vietnam War protests during the 1968 DNC in Chicago “hurt” Democrats. He then asked panelists whether pro-Palestine demonstrations could spoil Harris’s “coming out party” at the 2024 DNC.
Kristen Soltis Anderson, a New York Times contributing opinion writer, said she expects protests against the war in Gaza to disrupt Harris’s DNC debut. She speculated the vice president’s presidential play could struggle if it appears that “Democrats can’t even control their own convention.”
“I expect that they likely will. They have certainly expressed interest in doing so, and I think that would be really, really big problem for Harris because she is using this convention week to introduce herself to voters who actually don’t know that much about what she has done as vice president over the last four years,” Anderson said.
“In some ways, that blank canvas that you were talking about — the time when she was vice president — it’s sort of seen like a bad thing, right? That the administration — do they not trust her? Why are they not putting her out there? What has she actually done for the last four years?” she continued.
“But that is now, weirdly enough, allowing her to have this break, to be this person who is her own person on issues like the economy, where voters were trusting Donald Trump over Joe Biden by huge margins. Now, she’s running much closer to Donald Trump. So, by having this opportunity at the convention to introduce herself, it’s a big important moment, and if it is overshadowed by chaos that makes voters think, ‘Oh look, Democrats can’t even control their own convention,’ how are they supposed to bring about law, order, safety, security, peace in this country? And that would be a bad message for them.” (RELATED: DNC Attendees Will Have Opportunities For Free Vasectomies, Abortions)
At least a dozen local businesses in Chicago have barricaded their windows and doors with plywood in anticipation of destructive protests outside the DNC, according to WGN9.
CNN panelist Lulu Garcia-Navarro added that the “images of chaos” caused by unruly protests will harm the Democratic Party.
“I think it’s potentially damaging,” Garcia-Navarro said. “I mean, that’s the objective of protests, right? They want attention, they want there to be accountability. There is a huge portion of the younger part of the Democratic Party that is very upset by what’s happening. And that’s why I think you’re seeing the clock ticking right now in terms of what’s happening in Israel and the ceasefire.”
Biden ditched his reelection bid on July 21, endorsing Harris shortly after his announcement. Despite becoming the presumptive Democratic nominee in July, the vice president has yet to formally address the media by doing a sit-down interview or a news conference.
The DNC is scheduled to start Monday and will end Thursday.