‘Word Salad City’: CNN’s David Axelrod Says Town Hall Was ‘Mixed Night’ For Harris

Former senior Obama adviser David Axelrod said Wednesday that Vice President Kamala Harris had a “mixed night” during her town hall with CNN.

Axelrod said that Harris successfully prepared herself to present her opponent Republican nominee Donald Trump as a threat to democracy after his previous chief-of-staff told The New York Times and The Atlantic that he had “fascist” tendencies and allegedly praised former Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. The CNN political commentator said the vice president also delved into word salads on important issues relating to Israel and immigration, which he said were missed opportunities.

“Look, I think it was a mixed night. I think she was very strong coming out of the gate, and she obviously came with a purpose, which they want to shine a focus on in this latest chapter with the Hitler story of John Kelly, but generally anti-democratic behavior and the threat that represents. And she obviously was well prepared for that, she was very strong, as she has been on abortion rights because she feels passionately about it. She can be clinical on some of these economic issues, she was great on the long-term care for the elderly, to help people in sandwich [generations],” Axelrod began.

“She did one thing at the end that I thought was really important. When she doesn’t want to answer a question, her habit is to kind of go word salad city, and she did that on a couple of answers. One was on Israel, Anderson [Cooper] asked a direct question: Would you be stronger on Israel than Trump? And there was a 7-minute answer, but none of it related to the question he was asking, and so on certain questions like that, on immigration, I thought she missed an opportunity because she would acknowledge no concerns about any of the administration’s policies, and that’s a mistake.”

Axelrod said Harris also failed to “relate” to the attendees of the town hall by not personally addressing them during their questioning. (RELATED: David Axelrod Says Harris’ Answer ‘About What She Would Do Differently From Biden’ Was ‘Uniquely Bad’)

During the town hall, Harris told CNN host Anderson Cooper that she believes Trump is a “fascist” in response to former chief-of-staff John Kelly’s reports, which claimed that Trump said Hitler “did some good things” and wanted more generals like the Nazi dictator. The Trump campaign has denied the allegations.

“You quoted General Milly calling Trump a fascist. You yourself have not used that word to describe him. Let me ask you tonight, do you think Donald Trump is a fascist?” Cooper asked.

“Yes, I do,” Harris said without hesitation. “And I also believe that the people who know him best on this subject should be trusted.”

The vice president further attempted to distance herself from President Joe Biden by promising a “new generation of leadership.” She further dodged on questions regarding illegal immigration by saying they need to “just fix the problem” and claiming Trump did not “do much of anything” to fix the U.S.-Mexico border.