By S.A. McCarthy
The Washington Stand
It has been 19 days since President Joe Biden halted his reelection campaign and handed the reins to Vice President Kamala Harris, and she has still not provided a single press interview. But she’s going to schedule one “before the end of the month,” she says. While visiting Michigan this week for campaign events, Harris was asked by reporters when she might sit down for her first interview since beginning her presidential campaign. “I’ve talked to my team,” the Vice President replied. “I want us to get an interview scheduled before the end of the month.”
According to a “longtime Harris ally” cited by Politico, the vice president is likely holding off on press interviews until after Labor Day. Two other Harris campaign satellites told Politico that there is talk of a potential interview featuring Harris and her newly-minted running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz (D), prior to the Democratic National Convention on August 19. But that interview has reportedly not been scheduled and would not be a one-on-one with the woman currently running for president. One source told Politico that Harris has no “incentive” for taking questions from reporters. It has also been suggested that Walz, instead of Harris, will be the one to sit down for the majority of interviews, despite the fact that he is not running for president.
“So far, Harris’ rally speeches, delivered via teleprompter, have been well received. And she has routinely interacted with the reporters that travel with her — but on her terms,” Politico observed, adding that Harris will speak to reporters in private but only off the record. “And when she has chosen to comment on the record on something in the news, Harris has spoken to the pool on the tarmac, making statements but not taking questions.”
Others have also commented on Harris avoiding questions from the press. Noting that the vice president and Democratic presidential nominee “has largely avoided the press corps” since June 2021, the Daily Beast said that reporters “have not been given a chance to ask the nominee questions in an unscripted setting.” Public relations specialist and former Associated Press Washington Bureau Chief Ron Fournier said that “starting right now, every day she’s not talking to the media is political malpractice,” adding that Harris’s refusal to sit down for interview is also “not good for democracy.” Even left-wing New York Times columnist and former Huffington Post Editor-in-Chief Lydia Polgreen commented, “As a journalist and a citizen I think it would be very good for the Democratic ticket to sit for big interviews and routinely answer on the record questions from reporters on the trail. It is disappointing that this has not happened yet.”
Former President Donald Trump has repeatedly criticized Harris for refusing to answer questions on the record. “Excuse me, what are we doing right now? She’s not doing any news conference,” Trump stated at his own press conference on Thursday at his Florida home of Mar-a-Lago. “You know why she’s not doing it? Because she can’t do a news conference. She doesn’t know how to do a news conference. She’s not smart enough to do a news conference,” he continued. “I’m sorry, we need smart people to lead this country because our country has never been in this danger before, both economically and from an outside perspective.”
Trump announced that he has arranged for three debates — the first on Fox News on September 4, the second on NBC on September 10, and the third on ABC on September 25 — but Harris has only agreed to one of those debates, on NBC on September 10. Previously, Harris had rejected Trump’s challenge to a debate hosted by Fox News, instead insisting on a September 10 debate hosted by ABC which had previously been scheduled for Biden before he dropped out of the race.
“Kamala Harris doesn’t have the mental capacity to do a REAL Debate against me,” Trump alleged last week. “She’s afraid to do it because there is no way she can justify her Corrupt and Open Borders, the Environmental Destruction of our Country, the Afghanistan Embarrassment, Runaway Inflation, Terrible Economy, High Interest Rates and Taxes, and her years long fight to stop the words, ‘Merry Christmas.’”
Trump’s own running mate, Senator J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), has also blasted Harris for avoiding the press. On Wednesday, Vance approached reporters who were waiting for Harris outside Air Force Two on the runway in Wisconsin. The vice president had boarded her plane moments before, avoiding questions. Vance told reporters he “thought you guys might get lonely because the vice president doesn’t answer questions from reporters and hasn’t for [at that time] 17 days.” The Republican asked, “Has she given you guys an explanation for why she won’t take questions from reporters? No? Nobody?” He continued, “Well, I hope she changes her mind because it’d be good for the American people, and I think it’d be good for you all if she actually ran a real campaign instead of running one from the basement with a teleprompter.” Gesturing to Air Force Two, Vance also quipped, “Hopefully it’s gonna be my plane in a few months.”
Previously, Vance has accused Harris of “hiding” from reporters. “She’s fine if you put her in front of the teleprompter and tell her what to say. But she actually has to answer questions based purely on her own knowledge and interest in policy. Then it becomes a bit of a disaster,” Vance said in an interview with reporters. He added that Harris has “basically pursued a strategy of hiding from the press in the hope that people don’t realize how ill-prepared she is and how bad her ideas are for the country.”
Originally published at The Washington Stand!
