It’s been more than two weeks since Vice President Kamala Harris emerged as the Democratic nominee. And during that time, she has given no interviews or held any news conferences, setting a new precedent for candidates’ access to the press in an unprecedented election cycle.
Harris has had something of a honeymoon period. Mainstream media has showered her candidacy with glowing coverage, from immediate comparisons to Barack Obama’s political rise to recasting her word salads as meme royalty. She has tightened the polls against former President Trump. And the honeymoon will likely continue with the selection of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate and the upcoming DNC convention, where candidates historically get a boost in the polls.
Perhaps most importantly, he has avoided scrutiny.
His former running mate, President Biden, had been the opposite, especially in the days leading up to his exit from the race. Following his disastrous debate performance, mainstream media began scrutinizing the White House regarding Biden’s health, his poll numbers suffered, and Democrats launched an unprecedented, intense pressure campaign to remove him from the top spot on the ticket.
NEWS TIMES EDITORIAL BOARD URGES KAMALA HARRIS TO 'DO BETTER' THAN BIDEN IN ANSWERING QUESTIONS FROM JOURNALISTS
Vice President Kamala Harris has gone more than two weeks without giving an interview since launching her presidential campaign. (ALLISON JOYCE/AFP via Getty Images)
Remarkably, Biden was quicker to grant an interview during a terrible news cycle than Harris was in the much more favorable news cycle she is currently experiencing, speaking to ABC’s George Stephanopoulos eight days after their fragile debate that showed she ruined the 2024 race. The subsequent interviews and rallies did not repair the damage, and she dropped out of the race on July 21.
Even Harris was much more accessible to the media after the Biden debate, making appearances on MSNBC, CNN and ABC to push the “bad night” narrative.
WHY NOW? THE MEDIA HAS REMAINED LARGELY SILENT ON THE TIMING OF KAMALA HARRIS' REPEATED APPOINTMENT AS “BORDER CZAR”
Both Harris and Trump have been on the campaign trail during their new showdown, but only Trump has given interviews, most notably at the National Association of Black Journalists’ annual conference in Chicago, where he sparred with panelists. Harris did not attend.
Instead, the media has heard from a plethora of high-profile Harris supporters. One of her top surrogates, Transportation Secretary and former vice presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg, has given at least 10 interviews promoting her candidacy and attacking the Trump-Vance ticket in the two weeks since Harris became the presumptive nominee.
Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance, who is hoping to become the next vice president, specifically criticized Harris for having a “basement strategy” on Tuesday and urged reporters to hold her more accountable.
“This is a person who has been the Democratic nominee for 16 days. She hasn't answered a single real question from a reporter,” he said. “The American people deserve to know the people who want to lead them, and I think it's embarrassing for Kamala Harris, but increasingly for the media, that she's adopting a strategy of clandestineness of running away from reporters rather than getting in front of them and answering tough questions about her record and letting the American people know who she is.”
President Biden sat down for an interview with ABC's George Stephanopoulos eight days after his disastrous debate performance rocked the political landscape, while Vice President Harris has avoided the media despite a favorable news cycle. (ABC photo via Getty Images)
Why take the risk?
In the 17 days since launching her campaign, Harris has not faced any questions about her knowledge of Biden’s mental decline, how she would handle the ongoing escalation in the Middle East, the growing concerns of a recession, her record as a “border czar,” the revelations surrounding second gentleman Doug Emhoff’s extramarital affair during her first marriage, and the myriad far-left positions she took during her 2020 presidential bid — several of which her campaign has attempted to quietly address through disavow statements to the press.
“As long as she's getting so much favorable press coverage, there's no need for her to take the risks associated with impromptu press interactions,” DePauw University journalism professor Jeffrey McCall told Fox News Digital. “Harris has repeatedly shown throughout her political career that she's not very good at speaking in impromptu situations. She's known for her word salads and off-handed style.”
“After all, Biden ran a clandestine campaign with no accountability in 2020, the media supported him, and he was elected,” he added.
Perhaps her team has concluded that the risk of doing interviews is too high. Many point to her damning 2021 spat with NBC’s Lester Holt, when she said, “And I haven’t been to Europe,” when she was pressed for not visiting the southern border after being tapped by Biden to address the root causes of the migration crisis.
POLL GURU NATE SILVER CHANGES HIS PREDICTION OF TRUMP'S ELECTION WIN TO 'A REVERSE'
Harris was widely criticized for comments she made dismissing calls for her to visit the border during a June 2021 interview with NBC's Lester Holt. (Screenshot/NBC News)
Last week, he raised some eyebrows as he spoke on the court following the emotional return of Evan Gershkovich, Paul Whelan and Alsu Kurmasheva, three Americans freed from Russia as part of a historic prisoner exchange.
“This is just an extraordinary testament to the importance of having a president who understands the power of diplomacy and understands the strength that lies in understanding the importance of diplomacy and strengthening alliances,” Harris said at the unexpected moment.
'Doing better'
Calls from news organizations for Harris to answer their questions are few and far between.
The New York Times editorial board urged Harris to “do better” than Biden in engaging with reporters, something Biden barely did compared to his predecessors.
“President Biden has rarely granted the news media permission to ask questions on behalf of the American people, and on the rare occasions when he did, his team sometimes sent pre-packaged questions. This left him ill-prepared for the campaign trail and for facing his opponent. Trump also rarely takes questions. Ms. Harris has a chance to do better,” the Times editorial board wrote last month.
CNN anchor says Harris needs to explain her past leftist agenda
But beyond the Times’s tepid request, there have been virtually no requests from media outlets for Harris to speak to reporters. Versus Media podcast host Stephen L. Miller suspects this is because no journalist “wants to be seen by their colleagues” as the one who ultimately helped Trump win the election by creating the media event in which Harris falters under pressure.
“This is their atonement for what they see as mistakes they made in 2016 with Hillary Clinton and her emails,” Miller told Fox News Digital.
The New York Times editorial board urged Harris to “do better” than Biden when answering questions from reporters. (Fake Images)
On Tuesday, Fox News host Bill Hemmer suggested that other media outlets should cover Harris's refusal to answer questions.
“We can't be the only media company talking about this,” Hemmer said on “America's Newsroom.”
“He's gone 16 days without a major interview,” Hemmer continued. “I mean, is it possible that he's running out of time until Chicago? That would be extraordinary. And then you'd have to ask yourself, 'What are you hiding? And what is your team hiding from?'”
However, not everyone believes Harris should be giving interviews. At least not now.
“Voters want to pick a winner, and Kamala Harris looks more like a winner when she draws thousands of people at a rally, not when she has an interview with Lester Holt,” said Democratic strategist Christopher Hale.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Hale, who heads the Catholics for Kamala movement, told Fox News Digital that there have been no political setbacks that have led her to avoid interviews, demonstrating her growing popularity since launching her campaign.
“The only way it would hurt him is if the press started writing about the fact that he wouldn't do an interview. You'd have to make it seep into the public consciousness that he's avoiding an interview,” Hale said. “What he's doing now is working, so I would keep doing it until it doesn't work anymore.”
Harris' campaign did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.
