MSNBC host complains to Kamala Harris the race is too close with Trump: 'What's going on?'
MSNBC's Mika Brzezinski questioned Vice President Kamala Harris on Monday about the close polling between the former President Trump and President Biden, despite what Harris said was a "binary" decision in November, asking "what's going on?"
"I think that the debate is going to make clear the contrast between our president, the current president, who works on behalf of the American people, fights for the American people, and the former president who pretty much spends full time fighting for himself," Harris said on "Morning Joe."
Brzezinski pointed out that polls for both candidates show consistently thin margins, which have left Trump foes dumbfounded.
"If the contrast is so obvious, what’s going on?" Brzezinski asked in the taped interview that aired Monday. "Why does it poll so closely? Why is the race so close?"
"These races are always close," Harris said. "It's the election of the president of the United States. And everyone in an election for president of the United States will critically examine all of the issues and make a decision, but at the end of the day we're going to win."
Harris referenced the 2022 midterms, which some political analysts predicted would be a massive Republican "red wave." Instead, the election results were largely disappointing for Republicans, with Democrats expanding their majority in the Senate while Republicans won an underwhelming House majority.
Brzezinski laid out the stakes of the critical debate this week.
"President Biden and you have both warned that democracy is at stake in this election," Brzezinski told Harris. "That if Trump wins a second term, women's rights will continue to be decimated. That international alliances will be frayed — that's to say the least — that your work rebuilding the middle class will be destroyed, that rights for minorities will be rolled back."
"Joe Biden and this debate will make clear the contrast," Harris said. "There are many issues in our country and in our world that are complex and nuanced: November of 2024 is binary. And when you look at the difference, I would ask people to really imagine what the world will be like on January 20, 2025."
"On the one hand, you have Joe Biden who has spent his life and career fighting for the well-being of other people, including healthcare," Harris said.
"On the other hand, you have the former president, who spent full time when he was president trying to get rid of the Affordable Care Act," she said. "I could go on and on."
The Biden and Trump campaigns did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.
Fox News' Amy Nelson and Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.