‘Media’ tanked VP ratings?

MSNBC host Joy Reid has blamed “white and male media” for Vice President Kamala Harris’ lackluster approval rating — because they have not allowed her to showcase her personality.

“She’s just a regular sister in the same way people would always say that Michelle Obama is, like if your cousin became first lady. Kamala Harris is like if your cousin became VP of the United States,” Reid said in a recent interview with The Root.

“I think she doesn’t get to show that personality often enough, and so people haven’t had a chance to get to know her.”

Reid said the narrative that has been created in the news media around Harris since January 2021 — that of an ineffective politician with a penchant for flubbing her public remarks and creating awkward moments — does not reflect her true capabilities.

“Most of the media is still white and male,” the MSNBC presenter said. “And their take on Kamala Harris becomes the take. It becomes conventional wisdom.”

Reid has recently had a chance to sit down with Harris for an MSNBC special, “The Culture IS: Black Women,” which aired Sunday.

Harris, 57, made history when she became the first African-American and Asian-American woman to be elected vice president, but the honeymoon phase did not last long for the trailblazing politician.

Last fall — less than a year into Harris’ first term in office — a USA Today-Suffolk University poll put her approval rating at a dismal 28%. More recent polling by the Los Angeles Times shows that as of June 14, more than half (52%) of registered voters had an unfavorable opinion of the veep.

Harris has mostly stayed out of the spotlight in the wake of a cringeworthy interview with NBC’s Lester Holt last year, during which she was grilled about why she had not visited the USMexico border amid an immigration crisis.