It’s been more than a month since President Joe Biden was forced out of the 2024 presidential race and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris, and it’s been more than a month since she sat down and addressed the American people.
Since becoming the presumed Democratic nominee, Harris has dodged the media, only taking a few questions from reporters while being rushed to and from a waiting car. If Harris doesn’t sit down for an interview soon, her “honeymoon’s inevitably going to end,” according to Politico.
MSNBC’s Ana Cabrera pointed out that with less than three months until the November election, the now-elected Democrat presidential nominee has yet to speak with media outlets and take one-on-one questions.
Don’t expect Harris to do this anytime soon. According to Harris-Walz deputy campaign manager Quentin Fulks, the vice president will sit down with the media on her own time.
I think she’ll sit down on her time. Look as you mentioned this was a truncated time frame. We have made sure that we were getting out talking to voters. I think people forget just how short of a time frame it has been. We had a change at top of the ticket, we elected a brand-new vice presidential nominee pick in Governor Walz. We had to host the convention and we had to make sure we’re communicating with voters. So there is no rest for the wicked, our campaign is going to continue to do all the things with he need to do. Vice President Harris will make herself available to speak to the press on her time and when she’s ready.
Harris campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon acknowledged that the election “is a margin of error race.” Yet, the Democratic nominee refuses to address the American people without a script about the policies she is campaigning on.
As Harris faces mounting pressure to give a sit-down interview without a script or a teleprompter, Democrats have downplayed her refusal to address the American people.
On the contrary, former President Donald Trump hit the campaign trail even before announcing his run for the 2024 race. Since then, he has conducted multiple interviews, taken media questions from reporters, and held press conferences.
Several Democrats who attended the Democratic National Convention (DNC) said they are confident Harris will give interviews when ready, dismissing concerns that the vice president’s “honeymoon” phase might end.
“Let's give some time," a delegate from Indiana, Heather Pirowski, said. "I think just be patient because it's all gonna come.”
Another Democratic delegate, this one from Texas, pointed his nose at critics calling on Harris to take unscripted questions from the press, saying, “It's up to her.”
“I mean when they have to resort to those tactics and the name-calling and the vitriol and the misogynistic — he's back to 2016 when that's all he did against Hillary,” he said.
“I think when she's ready, she'll be ready, and she's gonna step right on in,” a Democratic delegate from Houston said when asked her opinion on Harris not giving interviews.