Since orchestrating one of the biggest coverups in modern U.S. history and forcing President Joe Biden out of the 2024 race, Vice President Kamala Harris has become the new Democratic nominee without winning a single primary vote or addressing the nation in an interview.
However, after facing mounting backlash for refusing to speak to reporters or hold a press conference, Harris has agreed to emerge from Biden’s basement and give her first interview since becoming the Democratic nominee.
In a turn of events, with just three weeks left of August, Harris has promised to give an interview “before the end of the month.”
“I’ve talked to my team. I want us to get an interview scheduled before the end of the month,” she said in Michigan when asked when she would give her first interview after a Politico Playbook suggested Harris would wait until after Labor Day to address the American people finally.
Kamala says she might possibly maybe do an interview sometime before the end of the month (23 days from now).
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) August 8, 2024
She hasn't done a single interview or press conference since she was installed as the Democrat nominee 18 days ago. pic.twitter.com/xBZfGbTl2g
Harris' campaign declined requests for comments about why she repeatedly declines requests for comment.
The Daily Beast reported that the "Harris campaign has declined requests for comment about when Harris plans to stop shunning media availability." The outlet notes that she has almost entirely avoided the press since her disastrous 2021 interview with Lester Holt on NBC’s Nightly News, during which she struggled to answer questions about why she hadn't visited the southern border despite being appointed as the Biden Administration's "border czar."
Since then, Harris has mainly only conducted interviews that were either taped or ones where she had a teleprompter in front of her.
On the contrary, her opponent, Sen. JD Vance (R-OH), has held several interviews and rallies on his own and alongside Trump— both of whom have pointed out the lack of times Harris speaks with the press.
Even the left-wing media has pointed out that Harris needs to start acknowledging reporters' questions and conducting interviews.
"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 trial,” New York Times columnist Lydia Polgreen wrote on X. “It is disappointing that this has not happened.”
In 2020, when Biden was running against Trump, his campaign strategy was to keep him hidden from the press to avoid the many blunders he would succumb to every time he spoke to reporters. It is obvious the Harris campaign has taken the same approach, given that she is already known for word salads and repeating the same sentences when she doesn’t have a script in front of her.
Trump challenged Harris to three opportunities to debate her— one on Fox News, one on ABC News, and one on NBC News. However, the Democrat nominee said she would be “happy to have that conversation about an additional debate, or after September 10,” but only referring to the ABC News one.