Vice President Kamala Harris’ interview with CNN on Thursday didn’t go as planned, at least according to betting odds for the upcoming presidential election.
Newsweek reported that Harris’ odds to win dropped after the interview. On Thursday, Harris was the favorite with odds of 10/11 (52.4 percent), but by Friday morning, she was tied with Donald Trump at 19/20 (51.3 percent) each, according to Star Sports betting company.
2024 election poll done by @PoliticalPolls on X shows trump leading Kamala Harris by 1%, Trump — 50% | Kamala — 49% | Some people are raising concerns if the polls are real, with people in the comment saying they have never been polled by anyone.
During the same period, Trump’s odds of winning in November improved from 21/20 (48.8 percent) before the interview to 20/21 (51.2 percent), as noted by UK-based bookmaker Betfair.
William Kedjanyi, a betting analyst for Star Sports, commented on the shift: “Vice President Harris is now tied at 19/20 with Republican candidate Donald Trump, drifting slightly from 10/11 yesterday. The Californian had been 5/6 in recent weeks but she has failed to surge ahead of Trump in the market.” He added that Republicans are hopeful Trump can now gain the upper hand before November’s election.
Forbes highlighted that while Harris was ahead of Trump by about 2 points among bookmakers following the Democratic National Convention, Trump gained ground after receiving an endorsement from Robert F. Kennedy Jr. last Friday. According to Forbes, betting odds on the crypto-based platform Polymarket give Trump a slight edge at 50% to Harris’ 49%, with both candidates having nearly equal odds of winning the swing state of Pennsylvania.
The CNN interview, which was Harris’ first sit-down since becoming a presidential candidate 40 days prior. Spectator editor-at-large Ben Domenech pointed out several visual and stylistic issues: “Television is mostly about visuals. Whoever set up this visual is terrible at their job. Bad lighting, makeup, hair, color choice, Walz’s collar askew, angle making Kamala look small, water cup center shot, off the rack poorly fitting suit… this whole thing just looks bad.”
CNN’s Dana Bash pressed Harris on these policy reversals, asking whether voters could trust that her current positions would remain consistent. Harris replied, “I think the most important and most significant aspect of my policy perspective and decisions is my values have not changed.”
Harris highlighted the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), for which she cast the tie-breaking vote in August 2022, as an example of her enduring values, pointing to the inclusion of “green” initiatives, even though these measures are costing nearly three times more than initially projected.
The University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business, in collaboration with Goldman Sachs, updated their estimate of the IRA’s green initiatives to over $1 trillion, up from the originally forecasted $385 billion over a decade.