Anti-Trump columnist says Harris has not yet earned his support: “Widespread impression of unseriousness”

New York Times columnist Bret Stephens is staunchly anti-Trump but said he is not convinced to vote for the vice president Kamala Harris However, she can no longer afford to avoid concrete answers to questions from the media.

“If she, as president, had intelligence that Iran was on the verge of building a nuclear weapon, would she use force to prevent it? Are there limits to American support for Ukraine, and what are they?” Stephens asked in an opinion piece Tuesday, also listing difficult questions about the creation of a “Palestinian state,” the housing crisis and the potential role of “nuclear power in her energy and climate plans.”

Stephens criticized Harris for her “lighter” answers to questions in interviews with CNN reporter Dana Bash and 6ABC's Brian Taff in his piece titled “What Harris Must Do to Convince Skeptics (Like Me).”

Harris tells NABJ she expects to “earn” the black vote in November.

“Perhaps Harris has thoughtful answers to these kinds of questions,” Stephens wrote. “If so, she doesn't let it show.”

Harris, the presumptive and now official Democratic presidential nominee, has not held a formal press conference for 59 days. She has begun to ramp up her interviews and met with the National Association of Black Journalists in Philadelphia on Tuesday.

READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP

“All of this helps explain my unease at the thought of voting for Harris – an unease I never felt when Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden were on the ballot against Trump, despite policy differences,” Stephens wrote. “If Harris can answer the kinds of questions I've posed above, she should do so quickly, if only to dispel the widespread impression of unseriousness. If she can't, then what has she done in nearly eight years as a senator and vice president?”

“Illiberal populism has emerged as a reaction to the well-founded perception of elite incompetence, arrogance and self-interest,” Stephens continued. “Does Harris have something to offer disaffected voters or does she simply embody the elite perspective they despise?”

Last major union not yet joined in showdown between Harris and Trump is close to making final decision

The columnist said Harris could not hide behind the “catch-all answer” her campaign had often relied on, that former President Trump posed an “existential threat” to democratic institutions.

“But: Trump,” he wrote. “For many voters, that's the all-purpose answer to doubts about Harris' qualifications.”

“It shouldn't be difficult for Harris to show that she can provide detailed answers to pressing policy questions,” Stephens wrote. “Or to go beyond a few hackneyed phrases to express how she sees the American interest in a darkening world. Or to articulate a politics of genuine inclusion that will appeal to tens of millions of wary voters. Or to prove that she is more than another factory-set liberal Democrat whose greatest virtue and greatest flaw is that she doesn't stray too far from conventional wisdom.”

The Harris campaign did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.

Fox News' Brian Flood and David Rutz contributed to this report.

Source of the original article: Anti-Trump columnist says Harris has not yet earned his support: “Widespread impression of unseriousness”