The late-night talk show format has a way of softening and humanizing politicians and public figures.
Not so for Vice President Kamala Harris, a woman whose only outstanding quality is that she’s unfailingly and extraordinarily unlikeable.
During a recent interview with Stephen Colbert on “Late Show,” Harris proved that once again with an anecdote that sounded suspiciously like a tired sitcom gag — and crashed and burned like a punctured spy balloon.
To understand how monumentally awful her story was, it’s important to note that these moments — which are meant to seem casual and unscripted — are first vetted in a pre-interview and approved as television-ready.
As “Scandal” actress Darby Stanchfield, writing for Slate in 2014, explained, a producer “calls you up a few days prior to going on the show, and you go over stories, anecdotes, current events, etc. that you might think to share.”
That’s followed by a “pre-interview phoner” with the host, who decides with the producer “which stories are the best and create an order to how the conversation is going to go on air,” Stanchfield said.
She was speaking about her experience with “Jimmy Kimmel Live” but noted, “Most all of these live talk shows work this way, by the way.”
If Stanchfield was right, that means the story Harris told — with her usual delivery punctuated by her signature cackle — was the very best the person just a heartbeat away from the presidency could muster.
During the segment Wednesday, Colbert began with the hard-hitting question of whether Harris was incredulous that she really is the vice president (I sure have trouble believing it every time she opens her mouth).
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