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Oprah Winfrey’s glitzy hour-long special with Vice President Kamala Harris Thursday night was not a feature of a serious presidential campaign, but instead a celebrity-obsessed public relations program intended to win what’s become a popularity contest.

If anyone tuned in to hear a few substantive questions about why Harris has changed so many of her policy positions, it should have been obvious what to expect by Oprah’s first question.

“Can you feel the joy rising in here?” she asks after screaming Harris’ name.

The virtual rally in Michigan marked one of Harris’ few media appearances since she became the nominee. She had only previously done one joint interview with her running mate on CNN, one brief 10-minute interview on a Pennsylvania television station, and one daytime forum with journalists at the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ).

On CNN, Harris barely got pushed on anything; in Pennsylvania, she barely got asked anything; and at the NABJ conference in Philadelphia, she was merely warmed up for the town hall about girl power with Winfrey. Her first question at the NABJ summit was also about how “joy” makes Harris feel all sweet, cute, and cuddly inside.

“Why is joy important to you to insert into this election?” was literally the first thing moderators asked Harris.

Compare that to when ABC’s Rachel Scott welcomed Trump to a NABJ conference in July by slamming him for criticizing black politicians and reporters, including an instance when he mocked questions from a black reporter as “stupid and racist.”

“Now that you are asking black supporters to vote for you, why should black voters trust you after you have used language like that?” she asked.

Scott never named the reporter Trump apparently referred to, but if the question was something about Trump’s rejection of far-left identity politics, then it probably was stupid and racist. Trump decided to respond to the routine ridiculousness with equal exaggeration. After mocking the moderators for flailing around with equipment before the forum, Trump came right out of the gate to loudly proclaim, “I have been the best president for the black population since Abraham Lincoln.”

“That’s my answer,” Trump said.

The Republican presidential nominee still agreed to go on last week’s debate moderated by Scott’s home network, ABC.

After relishing the “joy” of Harris running for president with Meryl Streep on the Zoom screen, Winfrey ran segments featuring guests who have experienced hardship over abortion and a school shooting in order to segue into Harris’ talking points. The producers outright exploited a girl who explained she aborted a pregnancy that resulted from her molestation at age 12. They then used a school shooting survivor as a hook so Harris could go on to rant about “gun violence.”

But Oprah never would have platformed the Afghanistan Gold Star families who hosted Trump’s visit to the Arlington National Cemetery. Harris previously characterized Trump’s appearance at a wreath-laying ceremony on the anniversary of the Kabul bombing that killed 13 servicemembers as “disrespect” to “sacred ground.”

“All for the sake of a political stunt,” Harris said.

Winfrey would not want to feature the responses from these families on her show:

Nor would the administration’s “border czar” be eager to share town hall airtime with the victims of migrant crime after more than 10 million illegals entered the country under her watch.

On Wednesday, the House Homeland Security Committee heard from Patty Morin, whose 37-year-old daughter and mother of five was murdered by an illegal immigrant who had been previously apprehended three times.

“Since my daughter’s death,” she said, “the Biden-Harris administration has not reached out to our family to offer condolences.”

Trump would probably have no reservations about a televised Winfrey sit-down, but there’s no question whether Harris would agree to an appearance on Fox News’ “Gutfeld.”

Tristan Justice is the western correspondent for The Federalist and the author of Social Justice Redux, a conservative newsletter on culture, health, and wellness. He has also written for The Washington Examiner and The Daily Signal. His work has also been featured in Real Clear Politics and Fox News. Tristan graduated from George Washington University where he majored in political science and minored in journalism. Follow him on Twitter at @JusticeTristan or contact him at Tristan@thefederalist.com. Sign up for Tristan’s email newsletter here.