Vice President Kamala Harris’ interview drought is about to come to an end after 38 days and counting since she became the Democratic Party’s de facto nominee.
Under pressure to sit down for a substantive interview after weeks of stonewalling, she agreed to a sit-down with CNN’s Dana Bash on Thursday. She will be joined in the interview, which will be taped that day and air Thursday night, by running mate Tim Walz.
During one of her rare and brief press gaggles since taking over the nomination from President Biden, Harris insisted on Aug. 9 that she wanted “to get an interview scheduled before the end of the month.” It took another 18 days for one to finally be announced.
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Vice President Kamala Harris has gone more than five weeks without holding a press conference since becoming the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee. (Reuters/Kevin Wurm)
As to when she’ll do a formal press conference, that day may never come.
“You will not see one press conference from her in the next 75 days until Election Day,” Fox News contributor Joe Concha predicted last week.
Former President Trump has sought to highlight the contrast in media availability between the two, sitting for several lengthy interviews in recent weeks and also holding a pair of press conferences.
Harris has famously struggled when faced with tough questions in the past, often appearing to laugh uncomfortably or offering jumbled and confusing answers.
In 2021, Harris struggled to explain a strategy for securing the border and infamously joked she hadn’t been to Europe, either, when NBC News anchor Lester Holt asked why she hadn’t visited the southern border.
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Vice President Kamala Harris and Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio. (Getty Images)
In 2023, The New York Times reported that she “all but went into a bunker for about a year, avoiding many interviews out of what aides said was a fear of making mistakes and disappointing Mr. Biden” after the “disastrous” sit-down with Holt.
Whether Bash will drill down on Harris’ numerous policy shifts from 2020 to 2024 remains to be seen. Harris has turned the 2024 race around since replacing Biden, giving Democrats renewed hopes they can keep the White House after things looked grim for their party after Biden’s debate debacle.
The Wall Street Journal editorial board on Friday wrote that her Democratic nomination acceptance speech lacked substance.
“Harris introduced herself to the American public on Thursday, and her presentation was much like this week’s Democratic convention: well delivered, confident and optimistic, and mostly devoid of policy substance. Whether she can keep this up, unexplained and unexposed, for the next 12 weeks will determine whether she becomes America’s 47th President,” the WSJ editorial board wrote.
The WSJ noted a variety of “falsehoods,” peppered throughout her scripted speech, including misleading attacks on Trump regarding abortion rights, Medicare and Social Security.
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Critics have noticed that Vice President Kamala Harris hasn’t held a formal press conference since President Biden ended his re-election campaign. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)
“Harris attempted to lay out a vision for her Presidency, but it was mostly empty platitudes. She will provide ‘opportunity,’ though she didn’t say how. She will solve the housing crisis, without saying how or explaining why there is a crisis on her watch. And she will reduce prices, without a repeat of her recent proposal to impose price controls,” the WSJ editorial board wrote.
Harris would likely be asked how much she wants to be linked to the Biden record in a serious interview.
Other topics she would likely have to discuss include several key foreign policy issues, such as Israel and Ukraine.
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Fox News Digital’s Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.
