'Word salad city': Dems see Kamala's CNN town hall as a bust

Vice President Kamala Harris' town hall on CNN on Wednesday was seen as a bust by both the Republicans as well as Democrats as she appeared to flounder for multiple different answers on different topics. The poor performance at the town hall for Harris comes as former President Donald Trump has been gaining in multiple swing state polls as the election is less than two weeks away.

Many Democratic pundits did not think highly of the Democratic nominee's performance. Democratic strategist David Axelrod pointed out that she dodged a question on whether she would be in stronger support of Israel than Trump.

"When she doesn't want to answer a question her habit is to kind of go to word salad city and she did that in a couple of questions," Axelrod said. "One was on Israel. Anderson asked a direct question on would you be stronger on Israel than Trump and there was a seven-minute answer, but none of it related to the question."

Harris brought up an allegation from Trump's former Chief of Staff John Kelly, who claimed that Trump said he wanted generals like those under Hitler when she was asked about antisemitism by an audience member. Cooper then asked her if she would be in strong support of Israel, to which she replied, "I believe Donald Trump is a danger to the well-being and security of America," dodging the question.

CNN host Van Jones agreed, saying that the "word salad stuff gets on my nerves," about Harris' performance. CNN pundit Dana Bash also said that many people were messaging her saying that Harris wanted to "close the deal" with the town hall, that they were "not sure she did that."

At one point, the Vice President became flustered when she was pressed by Cooper on previously calling the border wall "stupid" and a "vanity project" when the idea was introduced by Trump in his previous administration. Harris began to answer, shifting blame onto Trump for not completing the wall, but then Cooper brought up that she is supporting $650 million in funding for the wall that was earmarked under Trump.

When Harris said that the funding was now a "good idea," Cooper rebutted, "So you don't think it's stupid anymore?" At which point Harris appeared flustered and then shifted blame to Trump again.

During the town hall, after the country has seen record numbers of illegal immigration, Harris also claimed, "I never intended, nor will I ever allow America to have a border that is not secure."

Many on the right side of the aisle also thought Harris did terribly during the town hall. House Speaker Mike Johnson posted the clip of Harris claiming that she "never intended" to "allow America to have a border that is not secure" and said, "Kamala Harris thinks the American people are stupid. She said, “I never intended, nor will I ever allow America to have a border that is not secure.” WHAT?! It’s wide open right now and Kamala is the one who opened it."

Sen. Mike Lee also took aim at Harris' comments on the border wall, posting a side-by-side of her flipping on the issue of border security, and said, "Tale of two Kamalas How many more Kamalas are there?"