Former Harris Official Rips Kamala on Economic Speech: Nothing ‘New’

Ashley Etienne, former communications director to Vice President Kamala Harris, said that Harris’ speech on the economy on Wednesday was “nothing novel” or “fresh, new” adding that the Harris campaign needs to “take greater risk.”

While speaking on CNN with anchor Wolf Blitzer, Etienne was asked about tariffs and Harris’ economic policy. Etienne said Harris needs to “remind people that your life was not better under Donald Trump.”

“I felt like there was absolutely nothing novel about what happened today,” Etienne added about Harris’ economic speech in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, noting her comment was “a little critical” of Harris. “I mean to give an economic speech at an economic club in Pittsburgh, I mean there’s nothing about that that feels fresh, new.”

“My point is to her and her team…the only way you can beat Donald Trump is you’ve got to take greater risk,” Etienne said noting that Latino and Black men as an example, may not “have heard themselves” in her speech. “What I know about the Vice President is she actually sees people and they need to put that on display.”

Newsweek has reached out to Harris’ campaign via email Tuesday evening for comment.

In her speech, Harris spoke about her policy noting middle-class tax breaks, cutting the price of childcare and elder care, and getting working people access to paid leave. Harris also highlighted her policy compared to Trump’s saying, “The American people face a choice between two fundamentally very different paths for our economy. I intend to chart a new way forward and grow America’s middle class.”

Harris then ripped Trump saying that he “intends to take America backward.” Harris added that Trump plans to raise taxes on the middle class pointing to his economic agenda and give tax cuts to big corporations and billionaires.

Political analyst Craig Agranoff told Newsweek via text, “Her economic message faces a unique challenge: she must balance speaking to the broader electorate while distinguishing her approach from the current administration. While her former communications director’s point about taking greater risks may hold some truth, the real key to earning voters’ trust lies in articulating a clear, actionable vision that connects with their everyday concerns. She needs to emphasize how her policies directly impact families’ wallets and livelihoods as well as practical solutions for inflation, jobs, and cost-of-living increases. Winning trust requires not just bold rhetoric but a commitment to addressing the tangible issues people are feeling.”

The economy remains a key point for voters in the election, but last week’s reduced interest rates by the Federal Reserve (half a percentage point) did little to improve the opinion of the direction of the economy, as 49 percent say it’s getting worse compared to 47 percent in the prior week’s poll, Wednesday’s Economist/YouGov poll showed. The poll was of 1622 respondents, 1424 of whom were registered voters. The margin of error is 3.1 percent.

Roughly 4 in 10 registered voters say Republican Trump would do a better job handling the economy, but a similar number say the same about the Democratic vice president, according to a new poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. About 1 in 10 voters said they don’t trust either, and a similar share has equal faith in each. This poll of 1,771 registered voters was conducted September 12-16, 2024, using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for registered voters is plus or minus 3.4 percentage points.

Update 09/25/24 7:27 p.m. ET: This article has been updated with additional information.

Update 09/25/24 7:51 p.m. ET: This article has been updated with additional information and comment from Craig Agranoff.